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IBAS News Kalaam Telecom Bahrain Selects iBasis for International Voice Services

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iBasis, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBAS), the global VoIP company™, today announced that Kalaam Telecom, a full service telecommunications provider based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has interconnected with The iBasis Network™ for international voice services. The interconnection with iBasis enables Kalaam Telecom to route international voice traffic over The iBasis Network™, the leading global VoIP network.

Kalaam Telecom is utilizing iBasis’ PremiumCertified™ international routing product, which is specifically designed to deliver the highest quality and stability for international termination of calls originated by retail consumers. Through a DirectVoiP™ IP interconnection, carriers can fully leverage iBasis’ VoIP leadership, including sophisticated network performance monitoring and call routing systems based on the company’s patent-pending Assured Quality Routing technology.

Kalaam Telecom is also benefiting from the lower capital and operational costs of VoIP and will have immediate access to iBasis' global VoIP network, which comprises more than 100 on-net countries. The relationship with Kalaam Telecom provides iBasis with greater opportunity to capture a significant share of international calls to and from the newly liberalized Bahrain telecommunications market and the growing VoIP adoption in the Kingdom.

"Two of the major trends in the global telecommunications landscape today are the widespread adoption of VoIP services and the emergence of new service providers,” said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "By leveraging our global VoIP network and relationships with hundreds of carriers around the world, service providers like Kalaam Telecom are able to deliver the highest quality international service while continuing to focus on growing their domestic consumer base and launching new innovative IP-based services."

"We offer our customers a real choice in telecom services with superior quality, service and innovation, and we wanted to work with a global provider that shared the same vision of high quality and customer value," said Carlos Riera, CEO of Kalaam Telecom. "With their VoIP expertise and global footprint, iBasis is also able to help us rapidly grow and expand our capacity to meet the strong demand for international voice services.”

Due to the recent market liberalization, Bahrain is one of the most dynamic telecommunication sectors in the Gulf region. By fostering a competitive telecommunications environment, the Kingdom is enabling consumers to benefit from increased service options and reduced prices.

According to London-based research house Point Topic, the Middle East & Africa region is one of the fastest-growing in adoption of broadband lines with an 89.1 percent growth rate during the past year. Dubai-based Madar Research stated that the number of broadband Internet users in the Gulf States has surged from an estimated 0.5 million in June 2003 to 1.8 million in June 2005. Bahrain leads the region with a penetration rate of 13% as of June 2005. The rapid adoption of the Internet and the recent explosion of broadband demand from businesses and consumers in the Kingdom of Bahrain are spurring a high pace of increased demand for international connectivity.

About Kalaam Telecom

Kalaam Telecom B.S.C © is a full telecommunications service provider based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, offering advanced voice, internet, data and value added services to residential and corporate customers. Headquartered in Bahrain, Kalaam is a partnership between Kalaam Limited and the Shoaibi Group. Kalaam Limited was formed in 2003 to capitalise on business opportunities in the deregulated Bahraini telecom market. It had partnered with Australia-based Telstra in bidding for the second GSM license in Bahrain. Kalaam has developed a broad range of solutions that will usher in a new era of telecommunication liberation in the Gulf region.

About iBasis

Founded in 1996, iBasis (NASDAQ: IBAS) is a leading wholesale carrier of international long distance telephone calls and a provider of retail prepaid calling services, including the Pingo® web-based offering (www.pingo.com) and disposable calling cards that are sold through major distributors and available at retail stores throughout the U.S. iBasis customers include many of the largest telecommunications carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile, China Unicom, IDT, Qwest, Skype, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and Yahoo! iBasis carried 7.8 billion minutes of international voice over IP (VoIP) traffic in 2005, and is one of the largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world¹. For four consecutive years service providers have named iBasis the best international wholesale carrier in ATLANTIC-ACM’s annual International Wholesale Carrier Report Card². The Company can be reached at its worldwide headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA at 781-505-7500 or on the Internet at www.ibasis.com.

Assured Quality Routing, Pingo, and iBasis are registered marks; the global VoIP company, PremiumCertified, DirectVoIP, and The iBasis Network are trademarks of iBasis, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Except for historical information, all of the expectations, plans and assumptions contained in the foregoing press release constitute forward-looking statements under Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (i) the Company's ability to execute its business plan; (ii) the extent of adoption of the Company's services and the timing and amount of revenue and gross profit generated by these services; (iii) fluctuations in the market for and pricing of these services; (iv) the other factors described in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for its most recently completed fiscal quarter and Annual Report on Form 10-K for its most recently completed fiscal year all of which are available at http://www.sec.gov. Such forward-looking statements are only as of the date they are made, and we have no current intention to update any forward-looking statements.

¹ Telegeography 2006 data compared with iBasis 2005 traffic volume.

² ATLANTIC-ACM International Wholesale Carrier Report Card – 2002, 2003, 2004, & 2005.