Thailand's Leading Telecommunications Provider Records Millions of Dollars in Savings With An Increase in Reliability Using Red Hat Solutions

AIS turns to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its Value-added Service Control Point System

RALEIGH, N.C -

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS), a mobile communications company in Thailand, has chosen Red Hat for its reliable, high-performing and cost-effective solutions.

AIS is Thailand's mobile communications market leader with approximately 20 million customers. The company ranks first in both the wireless communications business as well as remaining the leading mobile phone operator and network system provider and prides itself as a pioneer in technology innovation. AIS's responsibilities include acting as operator and service provider of Digital Global System Mobile mobile phone network, importing and distributing mobile phones, accessories and telecommunications equipment and providing call center, Internet and over-the-phone online data communication service.

Differing from the majority of telecommunications service postpaid markets, in Thailand the prepaid service market serves the vast majority of all mobile phone users. Prepaid service markets challenge companies like AIS with integrating next-generation technologies into legacy systems where implementation and usage tracking of services are lacking and expensive. AIS realized that upgrading systems for this market would cost tens of millions of dollars, and so developed its own Value-added Service Control Point (VSCP) system, providing the functionality needed to launch new mobile services to the postpaid market. AIS's VSCP system runs on a cluster of 200 Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers, which enable the system to provide reliable service control functions, service rating functions and service charging functions at low cost.

AIS is currently the biggest mobile phone operator in Thailand, so the availability preference for us is 99.999 percent uptime, said Arakin Rakchittapoke, Infrastructure Platform Development, ICTM, AIS. For every minute of downtime, there is potential for 60,000 complaints and we can't have that. We need a cost-effective solution that will be resilient and reliable as our demand in the telecommunications industry and the prepaid market continues to grow. For this, we turned to Red Hat solutions and have since reaped excellent benefits.

With Red Hat solutions, AIS was able to save millions of dollars for a telecommunications upgrade system. The company drastically reduced both hardware and software costs and has enjoyed great flexibility in tweaking its own solution and avoiding vendor lock-in. Also, since the full implementation of Red Hat solutions in June 2003, AIS has experienced 100 percent uptime without a single system outage.

We are thrilled that AIS turned to Red Hat solutions for its VSCP system, said Joanne Rohde, Executive Vice President of Vertical Marketing, Red Hat. The company has already seen significant benefits that will only continue to help it serve its telecommunications customers. As AIS continues to deploy additional services on top of this system, the company will continue to gain a return on investment as a result of Red Hat solutions.

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About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high-quality, low-cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides an operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with applications, management, and middleware solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat is accelerating the shift to service-oriented architectures and enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, secure open source platform. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with a focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

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  • Forward-Looking Statements
  • Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.