World Billing Award affirms Connectiva's leadership status in the industry

May 14, 2005

The Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) Group and Connectiva Systems, a leading provider of revenue assurance solutions to the telecom industry worldwide has won the industry's most prestigious World Billing Award - "Best Revenue Assurance/ Management Project" -- awarded by the Institute for International Research (IIR). IIR is a global information provider and the world's largest conference company with a global network of offices in more than 35 countries. The MTC group was selected as the winner of the award, because of the sophisticated and progressive approach to the Revenue Assurance function. Connectiva Systems, the vendor, was awarded this recognition for implementing its ONEREViEW revenue assurance solution to provide maximum Return on Investment (ROI) for the project while delivering the desired functionality on time and under budget. The MTC Group is a leading provider of mobile telecommunications services with headquarters in Kuwait and operations in 18 countries serving over 9.5 million customers.

The World Billing Awards reward best practices and help raise awareness of the significance of the billing process to the communications industry. They are widely regarded as the highest industry recognition of billing excellence. Launched in 1997, this will be the 9th year that these important Awards have been announced. The award presentation was at IIR's Billing Systems 2005 forum in London, UK, on April 6, 2005. MTC was named joint-winner with Connectiva Systems for the "Best Revenue Assurance Management Project" this year.

Hugh Roberts, presenting the award as chairman of the World Billing Awards judging panel, said that the winners were standard bearers for the billing industry. "We introduced the 'Best Revenue Assurance / Revenue Management Project' award this year not only as a reflection of the increasing role that revenue assurance is playing in delivering operational effectiveness but also to increase awareness of this amongst the global service provider community. We were delighted that the competition in this new category was so fierce, and the winners are indeed worthy of industry acknowledgement. In the case of the MTC Group deployment, the Judging Panel were particularly impressed by the fact that Connectiva were able to demonstrate some arduous proof of concept requirements and Total Cost of Ownership benefits prior to being awarded the contract, and that the solution was selected and implemented successfully on the basis of scalability, adaptability and with continuous functional change in mind."

"We are delighted to receive the IIR World Billing Award," said Mark Trudeau, CEO of Connectiva Systems. "Progressive telecom service providers like the MTC Group are looking to maximize the lifetime value of their customers. Connectiva's customers benefit from ONEREViEW's unique process-based approach to revenue assurance across different customer segments and various service offerings. ONEREViEW's modular architecture, its ease of implementation and its direct impact on the bottom line have all contributed to it being recognized as a leading product in the Revenue Assurance category by IIR."

Venkatesh Jandhyala, Group Revenue Assurance Manager, MTC Group said, "The MTC Group is delighted to share this winner's award for Best Revenue Assurance/Management Project with Connectiva Systems. Our achievement is a product of the RA philosophy gaining company-wide acceptance and working with a vendor who shares a commitment to our corporate values and objectives. We hope that our success will prompt other fellow operators to take up the challenges of revenue assurance seriously and partner with a good vendor to ensure successful outcomes. This is indicative of our objective to get control and visibility across our revenue cycle and minimizing revenue loss, thereby enhancing value for all shareholders in the MTC Group."

-Ends-

About MTC Group
Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) was founded in 1983 and today is one of the largest mobile operators the in Middle East and Africa, with more than 9.5 million customers in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. MTC is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. In September 2002, MTC entered into a Partner Network Agreement with Vodafone, the world's leading mobile community in Kuwait creating MTC Vodafone Kuwait. In January 2003 MTC continued its expansion with the acquisition of 96.4% of Fastlink in Jordan. MTC's aspirations did not slow down and in 2003 MTC-Vodafone Bahrain was launched with the first 3G/EDGE nationwide network in the world. In 2004 the MTC Atheer service was launched in Southern Iraq, and today covers Baghdad as well. 2004 also witnessed the Government of Lebanon handing over the management of one of the two mobile networks (Mic2) to the MTC Group, which is branded as mtc touch.

Most recently in March of 2005 MTC acquired Celtel International, a Dutch communications network company with major interests in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, in one of the biggest telecom deals in the Middle east and Africa worth $3.36 billion. The MTC Group now operates in 18 countries. With this deal MTC group has completed its first phase of its 3X3X3 strategy which entails becoming a global operator with more than 20 million customers by 2011. MTC will continue to expand internationally through acquisitions, partnerships and green-field opportunities.

MTC Contact :
Hussein Ashkanani
+965-9690190
h.ashkanani@mtc.com.kw
www.mtc.com.kw

About IIR
IIR Telecoms & Technology has established itself as the leading provider of highly focused strategic
elecommunications conferences. Designed to serve the needs of both operators and manufacturers, the conferences are both international in scope and highly focused on the issues facing the industry. IIR Telecoms is part of IIR, the world's largest conference company and the leader in the provision of business information for over 20 years. IIR produces over 3000 events annually from a network of offices in 30 countries. For further information visit: www.iir-telecoms.com

About Connectiva Systems
Connectiva Systems is a leader in implementing revenue assurance solutions for the telecom industry. The Connectiva team has helped over 75 service providers in four continents on operations, finance and business system related issues. Connectiva's unique process-driven approach helps service providers improve their business and financial performance dramatically. Connectiva Systems is privately held and is headquartered in New Jersey, USA with a global R&D centre in Kolkata, India, and sales offices in New York, London and New Delhi.

Contact:
Connectiva Systems
Mr. Alan Phillips
aphillips@connectivasystems.com

+44 7801289101
www.connectivasystems.com

© Press Release 2005