Pre-tel Wireless Ltd. announces $110 million funding

Deutsche Bank Venture Partners, Cisco Capital, and Hewlett-Packard provide equity investment and vendor finance arrangements to enable Pre-tel to launch commercial services.

Pre-tel Wireless Ltd. ("Pre-tel"), a provider of managed hosting services for applications to European wireless network operators, today announced the completion of an equity investment by Deutsche Bank Venture Partners ("DBVP") in the company. This will enable the company to expand its footprint of operating locations in Europe to 18 points of presence over the next twelve months. Pre-tel is headquartered in London.

Roger Gale, Chairman and CEO of Pre-tel explained: "We are delighted to establish this partnership with Deutsche Bank Venture Partners. "They add great value to Pre-tel not only because of their financial strength but also because of their expertise in the converging space of wireless telecommunications and the Internet."

Roy Merritt, Managing Director and co-head of DBVP said: "Pre-tel is a very exciting company, which is ideally positioned to support network operators in deploying a wide array of applications to their user base in a reliable, flexible and cost-efficient manner. We are delighted to be involved in supporting Pre-tel's excellent management team to build a substantial, high-quality business over the next few years". Roy Merritt and Michael Patton of DBVP will join the Board of Pre-tel.

In addition to the DBVP investment, Pre-tel also announced that it has agreed vendor finance facilities with its two key supplier partners, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. It is intended that Hewlett-Packard will supply integration services along with the principal components of Pre-tel's applications delivery platform. Additionally Hewlett Packard will work closely with Pre-tel through a partnership with its Mobile E-Services Bazaar as a primary source of wireless data applications. Cisco will supply the principal components of the Pre-tel platform's access architecture linking it to the Internet and to Pre-tel's wireless network operator customers.

Peter Langkilde, Chief Operating Officer of Pre-tel said: "Pre-tel's partnerships with Cisco and HP ensure that our IP-based, carrier grade network architecture will be highly flexible, scalable and fully ready for delivery of services to existing 2G networks as well as to GPRS and UMTS networks. " Additionally we anticipate excellent results from working in close cooperation with the HP Mobile E Services Bazaar to develop a broad and robust portfolio of data solutions to provide our wireless operator customers first-mover advantage in delivering services to their subscribers.

About Pre-tel Wireless Ltd.

Pre-tel Wireless Ltd. is the world's first facilities-based Wireless Access Service Provider (W-ASP). Pre-tel delivers a wide range of wireless data subscriber services in the categories of Information, Entertainment, Advertising, M-Commerce and Professional to wireless network operators throughout Europe, enabling them to profit now from the convergence of mobile wireless and Internet technologies. To support these services, Pre-tel provides wireless operators with a full set of back office functionalities including IP mediation, customer care, service management and security.

About DB Venture Partners

DB Venture Partners ("DBVP") is the European Venture Capital arm of Deutsche Bank. It is one of the most significant venture funds (€1 bn commitment) and teams focussed on telecommunications, technology, and internet investments in Europe. The DBVP team is comprised of a mixture of professionals experienced in private equity, operational management and corporate finance. As an active partner and lead investor, DBVP brings specialized, strategic capital, to assist its investee companies to attain their full potential. As well as its investment in Pre-tel, DBVP has made a number of investments in leading companies, recent examples of which are NetQuartz SA, Real Call Limited, Wireless Systems International, Yada Yada Inc. and Xacct Technologies.