ANT plc (AIM: ANTP), the market leading provider of software and solutions for the IPTV, hybrid TV and consumer electronics industries, announced today that the company will demonstrate its Galio TV Application Manager and client software at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), taking place 5-8 January in Las Vegas. In the IPTV Tech Zone at the Sands Convention Center (72241-J), ANT will feature the award-nominated ANT Galio client. ANT Galio is at the heart of the world’s premier TV Application Manager, which provides a consistent and extensible platform for the delivery, presentation and control of interactive TV applications and enhanced services. More than 70 percent of the world’s IPTV deployments depend on ANT.

Visitors to the IPTV Tech Zone will see demonstrations of the increased service value and differentiation that can be achieved through the use of ANT’s standards-based, extensible client software. Along with partners Amino Communications, BitBand, Kreatel and Orca Interactive, the company will show elements of IPTV, including fast channel change, next generation electronic program guide (EPG) and various interactive services that form the basis of the majority of the world’s IPTV deployments.

“IPTV is an exciting, fast-growing opportunity that delivers significant value for Telcos and digital TV operators worldwide. 2006 promises to be a strong year for IP and hybrid TV deployments,” said Stephen Reeder, executive director of sales and marketing for ANT. “ANT is working closely with the other global leaders to define and roll out new and compelling services.”

ANT solutions and expertise are widely adopted by the world’s leading IPTV services, including Telecom Italia, Chunghwa Telecom, France Telecom, Sasktel and SureWest. ANT’s award-nominated Galio platform has redefined the benchmark for IPTV client technology and is rapidly gaining an extensive worldwide content creation following.

MTS – Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (Nasdaq: MTSL), a global provider of business support systems for comprehensive telecommunication management and customer care & billing solutions, today announced that its telecom solutions have enabled nearly 1,000 colleges, universities and school districts throughout the world to better analyze telecommunications expenses by accurately identifying billing problems and allowing them to reduce their overall telecom expenses. The MTS Application Suite instructs educational institution on the ABC’s of managing their telecom expenses — Accounting, Billing and Control. MTS solutions enable these institutions to check and track telecom expenses, while offering lost cost services to their students, faculty and administration.

MTS has sold its Application Suite to colleges and universities such as William Patterson University in New Jersey (USA) and the University of Johannesburg (formerly RAU) in South Africa. At the University of Johannesburg, which consists of 17 campuses/sites, the MTS Application Suite is used to bill students at discounted rates, charge faculty and administration calls to their respective departments, and track and monitor all calls relative to allocated budgets. The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), which consists of over 1,000 districts throughout the state of Texas, is another example of an educational institution with demonstrated success utilizing the MTS Application Suite. The New York State Board of Education has used MTS solutions for more than 10 years to check, control and manage telecom expenses across its 400 plus school districts throughout the state, ensuring that expenses are billed to the appropriate district.

MTS’ Telecommunications Expense Management (TEM) solution features an automated simplified tool for managing, monitoring and routing invoices for payment or correction. Invoice data is transmitted from all sources, including calling cards, purchase orders, mobile lines and landlines, and automatically analyzed relative to real usage, thereby reducing overhead costs caused by invoice discrepancies, disputes and errors. MTS’ TEM solution is comprised of a number of modules that work in tandem to manage all telecommunications expenses, such as Invoice Management, Bill Verification, Call Accounting, and Workflow Management. The Invoice Management module facilitates full bill reconciliation, verifying charges with actual contracts and assets against their known inventories, and provides tracking for all discovered billing anomalies. Bill Verification automatically validates data from the PBX against the data provided by the service provider to ensure the rates, durations, and costs are all within the company’s tolerable levels. Workflow and procedure controls are maximized when MTS’ customizable process engine is utilized to define all corporate defined process steps, rules and data flow, as well as monitor and adjust them according to their individual business policies. Application Suite’s modular infrastructure allows for the suite to be purchased on a modular basis and expanded as the organization grows or desires additional features.

Platinum Equity announced today that its portfolio company Matrix Telecom, Inc. has completed the acquisition of Global Crossing’s Small Business Group (SBG), which provides voice and data products to small- and medium-sized enterprise customers in the United States. In addition, Global Crossing and Matrix announced they have executed a long-term carrier services agreement under which Global Crossing will provide a full suite of voice, data and IP services to Matrix and its customers. SBG’s current product offering includes switched and dedicated voice services and data applications.

“The integration of Matrix and SBG is well underway and should be seamless for customers,” said Rob Joubran, chief operating officer and treasurer for Platinum Equity. “These two businesses complement one another extremely well, and combining them enhances the capabilities of both. Our top priority during the integration process is to maintain excellent service for customers of both Matrix and SBG.”

Global Crossing divested SBG after announcing it intended to de-emphasize certain non-core areas of its business, including the small- to medium-sized enterprise space. Platinum Equity, which often works with large corporations on non-core divestitures, identified the business as a strong complement to Matrix. A definitive agreement to sell SBG to Matrix was announced in March 2005.

“One of Platinum’s core strengths is our ability to grow existing portfolio companies through strategic add-on acquisitions that expand their capabilities, and the SBG acquisition is a great example of that,” said Matt Young, senior vice president for M&A at Platinum.

“We not only provided a divestiture solution to Global Crossing, which viewed the business as non-core, but we strengthened both SBG and Matrix by bringing them together,” Mr. Young said. “Moving forward, our M&A team will continue seeking additional acquisitions to further expand Matrix Telecom’s small- and medium-sized enterprise customer base.”

Rogers Communications Inc. will be participating in the Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference being held in Phoenix, Arizona January 9 – 11, 2006. On January 9, 2006, Rogers will be presenting from 10:25 – 11:00 a.m. (MT). A live audio webcast of the presentation, as well as an on-demand replay following the presentation, will be accessible through Rogers’ Investor Relations website at http://www.rogers.com/webcast.

Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNSL) announced today it will present at the 16th Annual Citigroup Entertainment, Media & Telecom Conference being held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix, AZ on Monday, January 9, 2006, at 2:30 p.m. MT time/4:30 p.m. ET. A live webcast of management’s presentation will be accessible from the “Investor Relations” section of Consolidated’s website ( http://www.consolidated.com ). In addition, a replay of the webcast will be available.

About Consolidated
Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. is an established rural local exchange company (RLEC) providing communications services to residential and business customers in Illinois and Texas. Each of the operating companies has been operating in their local markets for over 100 years. With approximately 245,000 local access lines and over 36,000 digital subscriber lines (DSL), Consolidated Communications offers a wide range of telecommunications services, including local dial tone, custom calling features, private line services, long distance, dial-up and high-speed Internet access, carrier access, digital TV, VoIP, telephone directories and billing and collection services. Consolidated Communications is the 15th largest local telephone company in the United States.

ECtel, a leading global provider of Integrated Revenue Management(TM) (IRM(TM)) solutions, announces the closing of the previously announced acquisition of Elron Telesoft, a prominent revenue assurance solution provider. This acquisition strengthens ECtel’s position as a leading provider of IRMTM and revenue assurance solutions to communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide.

About ECtel
ECtel (NASDAQ: ECTX) is a leading global provider of Integrated Revenue Management(TM) (IRM(TM)) solutions for communications service providers. A pioneering market leader for over 15 years, ECtel offers carrier-grade solutions that enable wireline, wireless, converged and next-generation operators to fully manage their revenue and cost processes. Led by the Company’s flagship fraud management solution FraudView(R), the ECtel IRM(TM) Product Suite features a range of fraud and revenue assurance products that minimize operator revenue leakage across the operations support system (OSS) chain. ECtel serves more than 75 customers, including prominent tier-one operators, in over 50 countries. Established in 1990, ECtel maintains offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit http://www.ectel.com

Formula Telecom Solutions, Ltd. (LSE: FTS), a leading global provider of Billing and CRM solutions for service and content providers and the telecom industry, today announced that it ranked 54th on the 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Ranking are based on percentage revenue growth over five years, from 2000-2004. FTS grew 1373 percent during this period.

“This recognition by Deloitte clearly demonstrates the growing market acceptance of FTS’ solutions. Furthermore, in the last quarter of 2005, FTS signed new deals amounting to about US$15m,” said Yair Sakov, FTS’ Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. “FTS is capitalizing on service and content providers’ moves to next generation products, while providing traditional operators with state-of-the-art solutions that address their current needs with a clear roadmap for the future.”

“Because Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA measures sustained revenue growth over five years, being one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in EMEA is an impressive achievement,” said Eric Morgain, partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 EMEA program. “Formula Telecom Solutions deserves a lot of credit for its remarkable growth.”

In addition to ranking on Deloitte’s Fast 500, FTS ranked 7th on the Israel Technology Fast 50 (http://www.fast50.co.il/), which is a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology firms in Israel. The prestigious Israel Technology Fast 50 focuses on success stories among emerging Israeli companies, with FTS continuing to be one of Israel’s strongest and more successful.

Partner Communications Company Ltd. (Nasdaq:PTNR) (TASE:PTNR) (LSE:PCCD) announces that its Deputy CEO, David Avner, takes on extra role as COO, effective immediately. In his capacity as Deputy CEO and COO, Mr. Avner will oversee the selling, marketing, technology, customer service, human resources and purchasing operations of Partner.

Since April 2005 Mr. Avner has served as Deputy CEO at Partner. In the two years prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Operations and Member of the Executive Management at Amdocs Limited. Previously he served at Amdocs as Group President Europe and LATAM & Member of Management. Prior to that, Mr. Avner served at Strauss Dairy Ltd. for 17 years, the last four as General Manager of the Dairy Division. He was also the General Manager of Strauss Ice Creams Ltd., and Manager of Information Systems at Strauss Dairy Ltd. Mr. Avner also served as active Director of Yotvata Dairies Subsidiary since 1998.

He holds a B.A. in Mathematics/Computer Sciences & Philosophy from Haifa University in Israel and an MBA degree from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Mr. Amikam Cohen, Partner’s CEO, wished Mr. Avner success in his new position.

For more information about Partner, see http://www.investors.partner.co.il

TelCove is a leading supplier of business critical telecommunications that has continued to grow since 1991. Among the expansion of the company, TelCove felt as though it was necessary to move to the next level and incorporate VoIP into their program.

“ECG was selected by TelCove to do turnkey engineering, installation, integration and remote technical support of TelCove’s Voice over IP Platform” said Ted A. Huf, TelCove VP Engineering. “ECG delivered a fully integrated and tested VoIP system in Pittsburgh and Atlanta as well as a laboratory system using Broadworks feature servers, Lucent gateways and Acme Packet Session Border Controllers.”

ECG created a project plan, incorporated the project timeline, set the engineering requirements, and developed a call routing plan for the development. ECG integrated a VoIP network into their legacy TDM network, which allowed them to maintain their current peering arrangements.

China Media Group Corporation (OTC BB: CHMD) (“CMG”) announces today that it plans to provide advertising through telecommunication devices to broaden its advertising reach. Advertising messages transmitted by SMS including interactive advertising are the new age advertising medium that will continue to grow with increasing success and consumer acceptance to location-based ads, opt-in advertising and advertisers-supported premium contents.

In November 2005, there were over 390 million mobile users in China, and they sent over 274 billion SMS messages, generating about RMB 27 billion, an increase of [40]% of messages sent over 2004. China Media Group intends tap into this growing segment to provide advertising to the masses. Mr. Con Unerkov, Chairman of China Media Group, stated, “Technology is moving so fast today we need to prepare our business for the new advertising medium. We view the convergence of telecom, media and television fast becoming a reality, and we intend to be actively developing this business segment in Greater China. We are exploring several opportunities that would provide us a platform to launch the TMT convergent services, first in the telecommunication SMS sector.”

Xinhua News Agency reported recently that by 2006, there will be over 440 million mobile users in China, an increase of about 12% compared to 2005.

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (AMEX Symbol: WTT) (the “Company”) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved accelerating the vesting of all unvested stock options granted by the Company. The Board believes that it is in the best interest of shareholders as it will reduce the Company’s reported compensation expense in future periods.

As a result of the vesting acceleration, options to purchase 249,000 shares of the Company’s common stock became exercisable immediately including 96,000 held by executive officers, 34,000 held by non-employee directors and 119,000 held by other employees. Based upon closing stock price on the American Stock Exchange on December 28, 2005 of $2.60, 31% of the accelerated options do not have economic value at this time.

As a result of the accelerated vesting of stock options, the Company is not expected to be required to recognize anticipated stock option expense of approximately U.S. $125,000 in 2006 and U.S. $125,000 in 2007. The Company will report the impact of the acceleration as a fourth quarter event and in its 2005 financial statements by way of pro forma footnote disclosure, as permitted under the transition guidance provided by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. is a global provider of electronic noise generation equipment in the telecommunications field. Boonton Electronics, a wholly owned subsidiary, is a leader in the manufacture of test equipment dedicated to measuring the power of RF and Microwave systems used in multiple telecommunication markets.

Microlab/FXR, a wholly owned subsidiary, is a global provider of passive microwave components including power splitters, directional couplers and filters. These products are employed as system components in commercial applications such as wireless base stations for cellular, paging and private communications, in-building wireless signal distribution, television transmitters and aircraft navigation landing systems. Microlab/FXR products are also used in military systems such as electronic countermeasures and missile guidance.

Willtek is a leading provider of solutions that enable manufacturers and operators of wireless communications devices to test mobile phones, air interface, and base stations of cellular networks. Willtek serves a base of more than 5000 customers worldwide with state-of-the-art products including testing equipment for GSM, GPRS, CDMA and WCDMA phones and wireless devices, as well as handheld spectrum analyzers.

James Q. Crowe, chief executive officer of Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), will make an investor presentation at the 16th Annual Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday, January 9th. Mr. Crowe’s presentation is scheduled to begin at approximately 11:05 a.m. Mountain Standard time. A Web cast will be available both live and archived on Level 3’s investor relations Web site at http://www.Level3.com/582.html.

Telelogic (STO:TLOG), the leading global provider of software solutions that align advanced systems and software development with business objectives, today announced that a leading global telecommunications vendor has renewed its one-year agreement for core components of Telelogic’s Enterprise Lifecycle Management (ELM) solution, at a value of 2.0 million EUR. Under the terms of the agreement Telelogic’s solutions will be rolled out to over 4000 users, an increase in the user base compared to 2005.

The agreement includes licenses for Telelogic FOCAL POINT, in addition to licenses for Telelogic TAU for analysis, modeling, design, and code generation, and Telelogic DOORS for requirements analysis and management. FOCAL POINT’s superior decision-making capabilities convinced the customer’s product management group to standardize on it for release planning and product planning.

“Telelogic’s solutions deliver powerful benefits to companies across the entire lifecycle – from deciding what to build to designing, developing and delivering it”, said Anders Lidbeck, President and CEO of Telelogic. “Telelogic is still the first choice when world-leading telecommunications companies need solutions to deliver and succeed in today’s dynamic and competitive market.”