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Wednesday, August 28, 2002
International Broadband Content Forum to meet in Halifax

ESPN’s Manish Jha to present Keynote

Mountain View, CALIF, August 28, 2002 -- The Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCD Forum) and its international members will congregate at the World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax on September 18-19, 2002 to navigate the future of broadband entertainment. Aliant Telecom is hosting the forum, bringing together broadband technology and business leaders from around the world.

Marie Hattar, BCD Forum Chair, attributes Aliant Telecom’s leadership in delivering enhanced broadband services as a key attraction to bringing this international forum to Halifax. “As we gather industry leaders to address one of the most pressing problems facing broadband content and service providers – monetizing broadband entertainment networks -- coming to Halifax and experiencing first hand the services Aliant Telecom is delivering provides us with an extremely valuable learning opportunity,” says Hattar.

The forum will open with a keynote address by Manish Jha, vice president, broadband and interactive television sales, ESPN. While many broadband services are provided at no cost to the consumer, some content providers, including ESPN, have launched subscription video-on-demand and pay-per-view services to special market segments. The idea behind ESPN’s approach is that providing broadband content is more than simply broadcasting television programming online – so ESPN is tackling the challenge of creating an original and compelling online experience that integrates the interactivity of the Internet with the emotional power of television.

The meetings will also feature panels on games, videocentric entertainment services, technical options and implications as well as required back-office systems. In addition, the Forum will review highlights of a recent Broadband Entertainment research report undertaken by Alcatel on consumer attitudes to broadband entertainment services.

Information about the BCD forum and registration is available online at online at www. bcdforum.org. Non-member companies considering membership may attend one meeting prior to joining the BCD Forum.

The BCD Forum's Board of Directors includes:
Chair Marie Hattar, Nortel Networks, Director of Enterprise and Security Marketing (www.nortelnetworks.com)
Vice Chair Wil Walkoe, Sprint, Director of Advanced Technology (www.sprint.com)
Secretary Robert Hess, Lucent Technologies, Director of Strategic Alliances (www.lucent.com)
Treasurer Phaik-Foon Kamp, Hewlett-Packard, Strategy and Business Development (www.hp.com)
Officer Dave Ginsburg, Allegro Networks, Vice President of Marketing (www.allegronetworks.com)
Officer Joe Mosher, Aliant Telecom, Director of Strategy and Business Development (www.aliant.ca)
Officer Scott Robinson, Alcatel, Director of Carrier Service Market Development (www.alcatel.fr)
Officer Tom Sauer, SkyStream Networks, Director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances (www.skystream.com)

About The BCD Forum
The BCD Forum is an independent, non-profit trade association that addresses the business of broadband. Members, which include some of the most important players in the broadband industry, work collaboratively to identify the issues, options and opportunities associated with monetizing broadband networks and to demonstrate that multi-vendor solutions can profitably deliver content-rich consumer and business services across both wireline and wireless networks. The membership consists of network service providers, content delivery providers, content developers and hardware and software developers focused on DSL, cable, satellite, broadcast, telecom and Internet technologies. For more information, please visit www.bcdforum.org.

For more information:
Connie Lindell
connie@bcdforum.org
650-949-6730

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