Rostelecom goes live with Ascade’s Business Operations System Carrier CockpitTM.

Ascade becomes first vendor to implement a voice routing and trading solution in Russia.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 1, 2006 – Ascade, the global market-leader in Business Operations Systems for trading and exchanging voice traffic, today announced that its Carrier CockpitTM Suite was successfully implemented at Rostelecom in Russia.

Rostelecom is Russia’s largest national long-distance telecommunications operator and international wholesale carrier. Rostelecom owns and operates a nationwide digital trunk group network and has extensive international connections with more than 100 operators worldwide.

The new system, which went live in December 2005, automates and optimizes Rostelecom’s international wholesale and bilateral business and supports the critical processes for buying, routing, pricing, and selling of international voice minutes. “The Carrier CockpitTM implementation is part of our strategic initiative to manage the growing international carrier business effectively. The implementation of Carrier CockpitTM Suite is the first of its kind in the Russian market and provides us with the market’s most advanced system for routing and trading voice traffic”, comments Rostelecom’s Commercial Director Olga Rumyantseva.

“This successful project is very much a result of hard work and determination of the people involved from Rostelecom, Ascade and the local partner Compulink”, comments Ascade CEO Christopher Grahn. Mr. Grahn continues, “The Russian market is expanding quickly and it is a huge advantage for us having proven our capabilities at an early stage. We are very committed to this market and we have learned immensely from this rewarding project”.

ABOUT ROSTELECOM
Rostelecom is Russia’s national long-distance telecommunications operator. The Company owns and operates a nationwide trunk network of 200,000 km in length, enabling the provision of telecommunications services in every region of the Russian Federation. Rostelecom handles the bulk of long-distance and international traffic transmission as well as the operation of land TV and radio broadcasting channels. The Company’s majority shareholder is Svyazinvest, with 50,67% of ordinary (voting) shares.
For more information, please visit Rostelecom at www.rt.ru

ABOUT ASCADE AB
Ascade is the global market-leader in Business Operations Systems for trading and exchanging voice traffic between telecom carriers. Our solution, Carrier CockpitTM Suite, optimizes and automates all aspects of a carrier’s wholesale and bilateral business while providing management with real-time business control capabilities.
Carrier CockpitTM Suite, developed together with leading international carriers, is the most mature and widely used Business Operations System for managing the wholesale carrier business worldwide. Customers include Reach, Korea Telecom, Taiwan Fixed Network, T-Croatia Telecom, Swisscom, Telenor Global Services, Czech Telecom, Lattelekom, Elion, Telekom Srbija, Allstream, Finnet International, Sunrise, Telekom Austria, MobileOne and more. Ascade AB is a privately held company owned by founders and leading Nordic investment firms CapMan, listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, and SEB Företagsinvest, the venture capital division of Nordic financial services group SEB, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. For more information please visit: www.ascade.com

Contact Information

Christopher Grahn

Ascade AB

Contact via E-mail