Aepona Expands North American Operations, Appoints Al Snyder as New CEO

Denver, Colorado, 27th March 2008 — Aepona, the leading supplier of software products and solutions to telecommunications operators globally, today announced its further expansion into the North American market, and also the appointment of Al Snyder as its new CEO. The expansion capitalises on recent successes for its Telecom Web Services solution with Tier 1 operators in the US and Canada, and includes the establishment of a US subsidiary, Aepona Inc., based in Denver, Colorado.

Al Snyder brings 30 years of management experience in the high tech sector to his new role. A telecoms and IT industry veteran, his previous positions include CEO at Carrier Access, COO at Openwave, and other senior executive positions at Oracle and Digital Equipment Corporation, with responsibilities for product development, sales, customer service, software support, and professional services.

Al Snyder is already well acquainted with Aepona’s business, having been a non-executive director of the company since May 2006. He succeeds Brian Caulfield, who has been serving as interim Aepona CEO following the death of Isaac Olasoko in 2007.

“I’m very excited to be joining Aepona at this stage of the company’s growth,” said Mr. Snyder. “It is already well established as a leader in the Service Layer market in Europe, and has started to build a strong footprint for its Telecom Web Services offering in North America with Tier 1 carriers such as Sprint, TELUS and Bell Canada. With North America leading the way in the convergence of IT, Web 2.0 and Telecoms, and the concept of open networks rapidly becoming a reality that Telcos are having to adapt to, the timing is right for Aepona to establish a North American base to underpin the next phase of its growth.”

As CEO, part of Mr. Snyder’s role is to build upon Aepona’s position as a leader in the emerging opportunity for Telecom Web Services. This sector is seen by many industry observers as vital to the ongoing competitiveness of incumbent telecoms operators as the Internet, Telecoms and IT industries converge, and they face competition from new market entrants.

Aepona’s strategy of building an ecosystem of Telecom Web Services “consumers” – 3rd party service providers, web developers, ISVs, and the IT divisions of Enterprises – will be driven in North America from its new US base. Additional hiring in North America is planned for the coming months to deliver this strategy.

“We are delighted to welcome Al Snyder as CEO of Aepona,” said Gilbert Little, Aepona’s Chairman. “Over the past two years he has proven to be a valuable member of Aepona’s board and has already made a significant contribution to the development of the company’s strategy. He has vast strategic and operational experience at a global level, and his experience in both the IT and Telecoms sectors is particularly well suited to his role at Aepona, given our strategy to be at the forefront of the convergence of these two worlds.”

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About Aepona
Aepona provides software products and solutions to Telcos globally, empowering them to fully participate in the new, collaborative world of “Telco 2.0” and unleash the full potential of their network assets. Headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland with offices in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, our products have been deployed by Tier 1 operators such as France Telecom/Orange, Sprint, Vimpelcom, Bharti Airtel, TELUS, BT and KPN, supporting several hundred million subscribers worldwide.
Aepona’s solution provides the crucial bridge between the Web / IT and Telecoms domains, enabling new Telco business models, creating new channels to market and opening up new revenue sources from their existing network assets. New services can be developed and rolled out faster than ever before, and can be seamlessly deployed across mobile, fixed, circuit-switched and IP/IMS networks.

Aepona’s Telecom Web Services platform – recently awarded the prestigious “Best Service Delivery Platform” Award in the GSM Association’s 2008 Global Mobile Awards – allows Telcos to securely publish their network capabilities – communications, information and intelligence – to the outside world as standards-based Web Services. This enables thousands of 3rd parties to telecom-enable both Enterprise business processes and web-based consumer services, providing Telcos with new revenue sources from existing assets as well as many new routes to market.