Findings From Global Telecom Trends Study Indicate IP- Based Services, Integration of Voice, Video & Data Are Primary Areas for Future Growth

GENEVA (PROTEXT) - Industry leaders from NetWorld+Interop and Intertec Publishing Corp. announced the key global findings of the 1999 Telecommunications Market Trends Study at an exclusive industry briefing yesterday during TELECOM '99, which is being held this week in Geneva, Switzerland. NetWorld+Interop joined forces with Telephony, Global Telephony, Cable World and Wireless Review -- all part of Intertec's Communications Division -- to provide a truly comprehensive, worldwide analysis of the communications market now and in the future. Conducted by The Adams Company, a third-party research firm, this study is believed to be the most comprehensive survey in the world focusing on the telecommunications market. The aim of the study was to identify the key challenges and opportunities driving this vast, dynamic industry, and to give service providers and their vendor-partners a better understanding of the services and business models evolving in the face of new technologies and business demands from their customers. The study queried service providers across the globe in North America, Asia/Pacific, Europe and Latin America; in three targeted market segments: incumbent carriers which included PTTs/ILECs and IXCs; wireless carriers, and new carriers which included CLECs, ISPs and Cable. "This study will be an extremely useful tool both for service providers competing in an intense marketplace and for vendors interested in gaining market share now and in the future," said Andrew Insinga, publisher of Global Telephony. "Results of the 1999 Telecom Market Trends Study paint a detailed picture of opportunities, challenges and trends for key players in all areas of communications." "Change in this industry is constant. What is considered innovative today can be replaced by an even more revolutionary, cutting-edge technology tomorrow," added Valerie Williamson, vice president and general manager, NetWorld+Interop. "This study helps the industry's ambitious new leaders navigate the competitive landscape and understand what must be done to succeed." Some major findings of the study include the following: -- Positive market influences are technology and e-commerce focused, while negative influences are regulatory and personnel focused. -- IP-based services are strong and growing, especially wireless services. -- A rising data tide is lifting all service providers in all regions. -- Service providers are beginning to outsource key networking technologies and business functions. -- In vendor rating and purchase plans, Cisco dominates, but many other vendors are ranked highly especially when looked at across different international regions. The top issues that all service providers expect to have major positive impact on their businesses over the next two years were: -- Integration of voice, video and data -- Demand for high-speed access Top issues with a negative impact across all service providers were: -- The slow pace of government deregulation -- Availability of qualified personnel However, there are some regional variations in these issues. The top positive issue driving the North American market is demand for high-speed access while the rest of the regions are being driven by integration of voice, video and data. The second most important negative issue showed differences across the regions. For North America it is the availability of qualified personnel, while for Europe and Asia/Pacific it is the lower profit margins on connection services and for Latin America it is the entry of new competitors/service providers. In terms of major shifts in services offered over the next two years, IP and wireless are the big news. In examining the mix of voice, data and video traffic over the next two years, service providers around the globe are seeing data and video traffic growing to be a larger share of their market than voice. With regard to global service provider segments, this pattern continues for incumbent carriers and new carriers while wireless carriers are still more voice-centric. Strong areas of growth for types of connections include DSL (12% to 31%), and broadband/fixed wireless (14% to 27%). Product performance is by far the most important consideration when service providers choose vendors The ability to provide support to end-customers and technological leadership were other important considerations. Cisco ranked first globally in the areas of delivery and support, technology leadership and global leadership; while Lucent ranked second for all ratings except in the category of delivery and support. However, when these rankings are analyzed across the different regions, a variety of other vendors shared the top ten rankings including Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel, Siemens, Nortel, NEC and Hewlett-Packard. When looking at their likeliness to outsource by service provider and by region, findings show that incumbent carriers in Europe and Asia/Pacific were more likely to outsource, while among wireless carriers, European wireless service providers were more likely to outsource and among new carriers, those in Asia/Pacific were more likely to outsource. The top-line U.S. results of this study were announced at an industry briefing at NetWorld+Interop 99 Atlanta in September. Complete U.S. and International results including vendor specific reports will be available by the beginning of November. About the Intertec Communications Division ... Telephony, Wireless Review, Cable World and Global Telephony are four of the eight magazines that make up the Intertec Communications Division. They are the leading sources for focused expertise and ahead-of-the-curve coverage of key technology, business and news issues for global communications providers, in all areas of the market. With a combined circulation of over 115,000 (BPA International, Paragraph 3a, June 1999 statements), these publications deliver powerful reach to wireline, wireless, new and incumbent providers in all levels of management. About NetWorld+Interop ... NetWorld+Interop provides networking, Internet and telecommunications professional buyers with a uniquely comprehensive forum for education and evaluation of products and services in order to make critical purchase decisions. NetWorld+Interop affords buyers from enterprises, carrier/service providers, and resellers/integrators the opportunity to experience live technology demonstrations first-hand. It's this focus on advanced, multivendor, multi-protocol, multi-service interoperability technologies and solutions that makes NetWorld+Interop the definitive networking event. NetWorld+Interop is produced by ZD Events, the events group of Ziff-Davis. For more information about NetWorld+Interop 99 Atlanta, visit www.interop.com. About Ziff-Davis ... Ziff-Davis Inc. is a leading media and marketing company focused on computing and Internet-related technologies, with principal platforms in print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online content, television and education. Ziff-Davis provides global technology companies with marketing strategies for reaching key decision-makers. Ziff-Davis has two series of common stock, one which is intended to track the performance of its Internet business ZDNet (NYSE: ZDZ), and one which is intended to track the performance of the ZD Group (NYSE: ZD), which includes print publishing, trade shows and conferences, education, online learning, product testing and television businesses, and an 83% retained interest in ZDNet. NOTE: ZD EVENTS, the ZD EVENTS logo, the ZD logo, NetWorld+Interop, and the InteropNet are trademarks owned or used under license by ZD Events Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ziff-Davis Inc., and may be registered in the United States and other countries. NetWorld is the registered service mark of Novell, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Although Ziff-Davis Inc. believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those expectations. Important cautionary statements and risk factors that would affect actual results are discussed in materials filed by Ziff-Davis Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Registration Statement on Form S-1 which became effective March 30, 1999, and the Form S-3 which became effective August 11, 1999. Holders of ZD Group Stock and ZDNet Stock are common stockholders of Ziff-Davis Inc. and are subject to the risks associated with an investment in Ziff-Davis Inc. and all of its businesses, assets and liabilities. ots Original Text Service: ZD Events Inc. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Sue Lonergan, or Jennifer McClure, jennifer_mcclure@zd.com, both of ZD Events, 650-578-6996 Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/132672.html or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 132672 Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT