WorldGate Communications Inc., (NASDAQ:WGAT), a leading provider of personal video phones, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Payment Systems, a financial services company located in Russia, providing for its purchase of WorldGate's Ojo personal video phones for distribution to its video phone service customers in Russia and a number of former Soviet Union countries. As part of this agreement, Payment Systems has purchased 4,000 Ojo video phones with their initial purchase order. The companies expect the rapid growth of broadband in Russia to help grow the Russian video phone market rapidly. The initial order is expected to be shipped by the end of December 2006.
This latest deal for the Russian market continues the introduction of Ojo into Russia. The development of the broadband infrastructure in Russia makes it a very attractive market for Ojo.
"We are pleased with the interest in Ojo from a variety of customers in the Russian market," said Hal Krisbergh, Chairman and CEO at WorldGate. "We believe that the Russian market is very well positioned to adopt Ojo as one of the new ways to communicate. The progressive nature of the Russian market and economy seem well-suited to be one of our most successful endeavors"
Ojo is a unique development in personal video phone technology with unusually high quality video performance due to enhancements to common software standards. Ojo is flexible and has been designed to easily integrate with and operate as part of a variety of service provider platforms. Ojo is also receiving rave reviews of its performance with 87% of Ojo consumers reporting that Ojo meets or exceeds their expectations. Numerous reports of how Ojo has positively impacted families' and friends' ability to interact more meaningfully continue to show that the addition of video adds to the personal communications experience.
More information on WorldGate and Ojo personal video phones can be accessed at www.WGATE.com.
ABOUT WORLDGATE COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WorldGate Communications, Inc. designs, manufactures, and distributes the Ojo line of personal video phones. WorldGate's products will be marketed to consumers through cable, DSL, VoIP and satellite service providers as well as through retail stores worldwide. Ojo personal video phones make conventional (or VoIP) voice-only phone calls using the existing household telephone service, and offer high quality, real-time, two-way video communications with video messaging and an optional cordless handset. The Ojo video phone is designed to conform to industry standard protocol (SIP) and utilizes enhancements to the latest technology for voice and video compression (H.264) to achieve superior quality at data rates as low as 100 Kbps. WorldGate has been awarded a patent for its distinctive design and has patents pending for its specialized technology. This unique combination of functional design, advanced technology and use of broadband networks provides real-time video communication experiences that bring families and friends closer together, and for the first time provides consumers with a high-quality, affordable video phone.
WorldGate is traded on NASDAQ under the symbol WGAT. WorldGate and Ojo are trademarks of WorldGate Service Inc. Any other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Expressions of future goals and similar expressions including, without limitation, expressions using the terminology "may," "will,""believes," "plans,""expects," "anticipates,""predicts," "forecasts," and expressions which otherwise reflect something other than historical fact are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the timely development and market acceptance of products and technologies, the ability to fund operations or raise additional capital if needed and the other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. No obligation is undertaken to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.
