placement to industry professionls

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    ASX Release 13 August 2003

    Strategic Placement Sets Course for National Expansion

    In line with its continuing national expansion and transition to a “Full Service Carrier” Swiftel has placed 10% of its issued capital with parties associated with industry professionals Mr Colin Marland and Mr Malcolm Dick.

    Mr Marland and Mr Dick will also join the Board of Directors effective 1 September. Mr Marland is the co-founder and board member of People Telecom. Malcolm Dick is the co-founder and board member of Call Plus. These companies are the largest privately owned telecom service providers currently in Australia and New Zealand.

    Swiftel will benefit greatly from the experience of its new investors and board members in guiding the company in its transformation to a “Full Service” strategy.

    The issue of 14,000,000 shares and options raised $840,000 and will be applied to the
    expansion of Swiftel’s national ADSL roll out with services commencing this month in Melbourne. It is noted the company has already established a strong presence in Sydney with over 2,500 ADSL customers connected since commencing the service 6 months ago. Swiftel currently connects some 800 ADSL customers a month in Sydney which makes it one of the nation’s fastest growing DSL providers.

    Messrs Marland and Dick have many years experience in the deregulated telecommunication environment with Mr Marland being the cofounder of CorpTEL communications and has been involved with the start up and listing of several public companies. He also served on the board of the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman for several years. Mr Dick was the co-founder of Call Australia and DigiPlus, and is also the founder and operator of the third largest fixed line Carrier and ISP in New Zealand, CallPlus. In addition he is a director and shareholder in ihug, a major New Zealand and Australian Internet Service Provider.

    CorpTEL and Call Australia were the largest privately owned telephone companies in Australia prior to their major trade sales in 1998 to AAPT and RSL Communications respectively.

    Swiftel’s projections for the growth rate in new ADSL customers is based upon industry expectation for market penetration of broadband to increase from the current 4% to around 20% over the next three years and as such, expects some 14000 subscribers by 04 FY end.

    Swiftel expects a maiden profit for the 2004 financial year based on these projections and complementing this with its full service offering.

    For further information please contact Chris Gale or Mark Hansen. Alternatively, visit www.swiftel.com.au.

    The parties involved qualify section 708 of the Corporations Act 2001 as professional investors.

    Mark Hansen
    Investor Relations Consultant
    Telephone +61 2 8249 4513
    [email protected]

    Chris Gale
    Chief Executive Officer
    Telephone+ 61 2 8249 4513
    [email protected]

    BACKGROUND

    Swiftel provides a premium, high speed, high bandwidth, optical telecommunications network for business and government throughout Australia. The network integrates advanced high-capacity fibre-optic cable with state-of-the-art switching technology to support a carrier grade IP network and emerging technologies. The products range from Broadband ADSL Services, High Speed Managed Services, Co-Location, Data Storage as well as fixed line and mobile voice services.
 
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