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15/12/2003 - hSo Donates Bandwidth to Salvation Army

hSo enables an anticipated 1 million daily hits - and $90 million in donations - over the Christmas period for The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army internationally has appointed...more.

08/09/2003 - Fame Academy Stage Debut for hSo Vault

hSo, the integrated communications provider, has launched hSo Vault, a fully managed online remote back up service for mission critical data. This new data back up solution has...more.

05/09/2003 - hSo Brings Broadband Britain to Woking Businesses

hSo, the integrated communications provider, has won the contract to Broadband enable the 43,000 ft2 Victoria Gate headquarters building in Woking. hSo will work ...more.

01/08/2003 - hSo chooses Spreckley Partners in Major Rebrand

hSo, Backed by UK's Leading Property Companies, Appoints Spreckley Partners in Major Re-Brand Promotion

hSo, the specialist company formed in 2000 by its...more.

03/07/2003 - Summer Communications to Rebrand hSo

Summer appointed by IT office communication specialist, hSo for corporate re-branding and communications campaign.

Following a five-way pitch, Summer Communications has been...more.

02/07/2003 - hSo increase area served to over 10.5m sq ft

Leading UK Broadband connectivity and services provider, hSo has passed a significant milestone and is now serving over 10.5 million ft2 of offices owned by 68 leading landlords...more.

02/05/2003 - hSo signs first Wholesaler Agreement

Today, hSo announces the signing of a Wholesaler agreement with LANZ Limited to sell and distribute a select suite of hSo's products and services to small to medium sized ...more.

09/03/2003 - Senior changes at hSo

Today, hSo, the Broadband services provider owned by five of the UK's largest property owners (British Land, Prudential, Morley, Legal & General and...more.

hSo Donates Bandwidth to Salvation Army

hSo enables an anticipated 1 million daily hits - and $90 million in donations - over the Christmas period for The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army internationally has appointed hSo, one of the UK's leading integrated communications providers, as its preferred Internet access supplier for its London-based, Global IT Hosting site. In addition to the day to day service demanded by The Salvation Army, hSo is also donating the extra bandwidth required to enable it to handle the anticipated, massive demand over the Christmas holiday period.

In the US last Christmas, The Salvation Army raised in excess of $89 million, with much donated online, and expects this figure to exceed $90 million this year. In addition to the more usual 4mbps internet access service, 100mbps will be made available by hSo in order to enable the instantaneous processing of internet donations and 'angel giving tree gifts' generated by an anticipated 1 million hits per day. Demand is expected to surge to unprecedented levels due to the fact that The Salvation Army, the largest charity in the US and one of the top three in the UK, is the Yahoo! 'Charity of Choice' this year.

Chris Evans, managing director at hSo, commenting on the bandwidth donation, said: "To our knowledge, this will be one of the busiest charitable sites in the world to date. We are genuinely excited about the role, however modest, we're playing helping raise money for those less fortunate than ourselves".

Mark Calleran, Head of IT for the International Headquarters of The Salvation Army added:

"Its very simple. Without the necessary bandwidth potential donors can't instantaneously access our online donation sites and may then give up trying. We're hugely grateful to hSo for extending their service to us and donating the capacity we desperately need during this period".

For further information, please contact:
Fraser Butters/Kelly Stroud
Spreckley Partners
E: butters@spreckley.co.uk
T: 0207 388 9988

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Fame Academy Stage Debut for hSo Vault

hSo, the integrated communications provider, has launched hSo Vault, a fully managed online remote back up service for mission critical data. This new data back up solution has been installed by Endemol, the production company behind this season's BBC Fame Academy series. The 140 production staff based on the premises of the Academy building at Highgate Hill are generating approximately 50 Gbit/s of data per day, which is remotely hosted and managed at hSo's data centre facility.

All data generated at Highgate Hill is backed up remotely and then made available online to Endemol at the company's head office in Shepherds Bush, West London. This has allowed Endemol a much more sophisticated management of its own data resources than the previous solution, which relied upon the physical management of tape libraries.

hSo Vault uses existing Internet connections between the Highgate Hill production team and the head office to deliver 24 hour online access to the archived data filing system. The scalability of the hSo Vault solution allows for greater amounts of data to be remotely managed as the programme output increases throughout the prime time series.

Quentin Bradley, Endemol's IT Manager said: "hSo Vault has provided us with a back up solution which makes our job much easier. We previously relied on tape storage which was impractical, given our disparate office locations and also unproductive in terms of our IT management time. The solution was installed with minimum fuss and effort and compliments our existing communications infrastructure."

hSo Vault has an 'agentless' architecture, which removes the need to install software on each of the target machines that must be protected. Installed at the client's premises, the hSo appliance software runs on a windows NT/2000 machine and compresses and encrypts the corporate data to the hSo Vault Server located at the hSo Data Centre.

hSo Vault not only offers compelling business and IT benefits but also improved customer service as part of the proposition. Client IT departments enjoy improved control over their company data via 'always on' access to online monitoring and management facilities including billing options. Client IT departments are also able to determine exactly what types of data are backed up and at what intervals to best suit the company's needs.

Chris Evans, Managing Director of hSo: "Vault is the perfect 'no headache' solution for any company that relies on fast and secure access to its corporate data. hSo Vault can be deployed quickly and effectively without compromising business performance. With high media focus and pressure on Endemol's production team, Vault will not let them down."

hSo Vault requires no further client hardware investment and offers true value for money in terms of reducing IT management time and delivering a scalable solution to cope with increasing data generation. Systems failure and the threat of downtime are much reduced in comparison to the alternative 'on site' storage of data via tape download. In the event of a systems downtime, there is no need for any physical transfer of data tapes from one location to another or time wasted in downloading taped data, which comprises business performance.

hSo has been working with Endemol since 2001 to create voice and data solutions that best fit the production company's needs. With the high paced demands that a media production company exerts on its IT systems, hSo provides a broad range of solutions which lets them focus on its programming rather than worry about the scalability and demands on its communications infrastructure.

About hSo

hSo is a customer service focused, integrated communications provider bringing managed voice, Internet, video and data solutions to business customers in UK metropolitan markets.

Working in partnership with property owners, hSo installs and operates next generation networks, to provide simple and convenient best-of-breed telecom and data services to tenants. hSo offers competitively priced, high bandwidth, single source quality, secure and scaleable advanced telecommunications solutions, together with a commitment to industry-leading customer service.

About Endemol

ENDEMOL UK is ranked number one in the UK's only two production industry surveys, conducted by Broadcast Magazine and Televisual. The group is dedicated to ideas that work across a range of media including the Web, mobile phones, interactive TV, radio and DVD - and also holds top position in Televisual's new media survey.

Its production brands - Endemol UK Productions, Initial, Brighter Pictures and Zeppotron - produce over 7,000 hours of programmes for British television and are behind some of the biggest international TV hits to come out of the UK.

Credits include BIG BROTHER, THE SALON, (Channel 4; E4), FAME ACADEMY (BBC), THE ORANGE BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS (BBC 1), PARTY IN THE PARK (Five), CHANGING ROOMS, GROUND FORCE and READY STEADY COOK (BBC).

ENDEMOL UK also owns award winning digital media company, VICTORIA REAL and HAWKSHEAD - one of UK's leading corporate production companies.

The UK Group employs roughly 500 people at any time and is part of Europe's leading television content multinational ENDEMOL, which spans 21 countries.

ENDEMOL is 100% owned by Spanish telecoms and media giant TELEFONICA - the largest provider of telecom and internet services in the Spanish and Portuguese language world, with companies in 17 countries and more than 62 million customers.

For further information and/or photography please contact:

Fraser Butters/Kelly Stroud
Spreckley Partners
E: butters@spreckley.co.uk
T: 0207 388 9988

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hSo Brings Broadband Britain to Woking Businesses

hSo, the integrated communications provider, has won the contract to Broadband enable the 43,000 ft2 Victoria Gate headquarters building in Woking. hSo will work in partnership with leading UK landlord Morley Fund Management, part of the Norwich Union/Aviva Group, which owns Victoria Gate. The building has been extensively redeveloped and was launched to the market in mid-September through letting agents Lambert Smith Hampton and Hodnett Martin Smith.

hSo is providing 100Mbit/s Broadband connectivity to the building - thousands of times faster than a standard Internet dial-up - and sufficient to serve companies throughout Woking town centre. This will enable Woking's businesses to enhance their performance by taking advantage of hSo's cost-effective Broadband enabled voice and data solutions.

In addition, hSo has installed an interactive Internet kiosk in the building's reception area to demonstrate the building's Broadband capability and the business benefits that it offers - to both the building's tenants and also to local business. The kiosk also provides prospective tenants with general information about the surrounding area, including: local transport, housing, restaurants, hotels and leisure facilities.

Philip Littlehales of Morley commented: "Victoria Gate is literally the best connected building in one of the best connected towns in the South East. Woking has enviable road and rail connections to London and Heathrow, combined with great shopping, leisure and housing opportunities. This is a very exciting proposition for businesses wanting to relocate and hSo's investment in Broadband connectivity adds real value, saving tenants the prohibitive cost and delays of obtaining it themselves. Services to tenants can be activated within 24 hours."

hSo is the only Broadband provider owned by the property industry, collaborating with property owners to install and operate business networks to provide simple and convenient best of breed secure voice and data services. hSo is majority owned by four FTSE 100 companies, some of the UK's leading property owners, British Land, Canary Wharf, Legal and General, Prudential and Morley. hSo uniquely combines property, telecoms and IT expertise and works alongside the property owners to provide competitively priced telecoms solutions from a single supplier.

Chris Evans, Managing Director of hSo commented: "We are delighted to have won the contract at Victoria Gate. Businesses in Woking can now benefit from the type of IT services that are typically only available to larger corporates but at an affordable price. Property owners are increasingly seeking to differentiate their properties and offer world-class IT solutions to tenants. Companies are demanding their landlords offer these facilities and those landlords that continue to choose not to, will continue to struggle."

About HighSpeedOffice

hSo is a service focused, Broadband communications provider bringing managed voice, Internet, video and data solutions to business customers in UK metropolitan markets.

Working in partnership with leading property owners, hSo installs and operates Broadband networks, to provide simple and convenient best-of-breed telecom and data services to tenants. hSo offers competitively priced, flexible bandwidth, secure and scaleable advanced telecomms solutions, promising quality service from a single source.

For further information and/or photography please contact:
Fraser Butters/Kelly Stroud
Spreckley Partners
E: butters@spreckley.co.uk
T: 0207 388 9988

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hSo chooses Spreckley Partners in Major Rebrand

hSo, Backed by UK's Leading Property Companies, Appoints Spreckley Partners in Major Re-Brand Promotion

hSo, the specialist company formed in 2000 by its investment partners (inc: Prudential, Canary Wharf, British Land, Morley, Legal & General and Morgan Stanley) to exploit the huge potential to Broadband enable commercial property, has appointed Spreckley Partners Ltd (SPL).

SPL clinched the account following a competitive, four-way pitch process that was inspired by the company's forthcoming re-brand, its subsequent promotion and the desire to increase the target audiences awareness.

Cassandra Manthey, Marketing Manager at hSo, said: "hSo is already the pre-eminent vendor in the commercial property sector and SPL will focus on promoting the company both in this area and, increasingly, in new vertical market and technology sectors.

SPL impressed us from the start with a combination of their knowledge and experience but, most especially, their enthusiasm".

For further information, please contact:
Fraser Butters/Kelly Stroud
Spreckley Partners
E: butters@spreckley.co.uk
T: 0207 388 9988

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Summer Communications to Rebrand hSo

Summer appointed by IT office communication specialist, hSo for corporate re-branding and communications campaign.

Following a five-way pitch, Summer Communications has been appointed by hSo to create a new corporate identity for the IT business communication specialist. The re-branding will roll out across a range of communication programmes in the autumn.

hSo provides customers with a range of reliable, flexible and scaleable telecoms and network solutions that increase the productivity, speed, mobility and security of their customer's businesses. hSo is backed by some of the country's largest property owners: British Land, Canary Wharf, Legal & General, Morley Fund Management and Prudential.

Chris Evans, managing director of hSo said, 'we wanted to find a partner to work with us to help us reposition ourselves. We want to be seen as the leading player offering real Broadband based communications solutions to tenants within buildings in all major business centres across the UK. Summer had a good grasp of what we are trying to achieve and creative credentials to match. We believe we have found a solution to present our business in a way pertinent to our customers' needs.'

Mark Springall, managing director of Summer Communications said, 'we are delighted to be working with Chris and his team at hSo. There's a lot of work to do, but it's an exciting challenge and a great opportunity for us. Summer is only six month's old but we have had three pitches and have one all three. We're now looking forward to the fourth!'.

About hSo

hSo is a customer service focused, integrated communications provider bringing managed voice, Internet, video and data solutions to business customers in UK metropolitan markets.

Working in partnership with property owners including Legal & General, hSo installs and operates next generation networks to provide best-of-breed Broadband telecom services to the tenants. hSo is able to offer tenants a competitively priced, high bandwidth, single source solution that immediately increases the productivity and security of their business, together with a commitment to provide industry-leading customer service.

For further information, please contact:
Fraser Butters/Kelly Stroud
Spreckley Partners
E: butters@spreckley.co.uk
T: 0207 388 9988

About Summer

Summer was founded on 1st January 2003 by Mark Springall, previously a director of Proximity London.

For more information, please speak to:

Mark Springall

Summer Communications Limited, 53 Pembridge Road London W11 3HG

Tel:

020 7229 0977

Direct:

020 7229 0974

Email:

mark@summercommunications.co.uk

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hSo increase area served to over 10.5m sq ft

Leading UK Broadband connectivity and services provider, hSo has passed a significant milestone and is now serving over 10.5 million ft2 of offices owned by 68 leading landlords including Grosvenor Estate, Shaftesbury plc, Investream, Isis Property Asset Management, Great Portland Estates, The Church Commissioners and Corporation of London.

hSo is an integrated communications provider bringing managed voice, Internet, video and data solutions to business customers in UK metropolitan markets. Working in partnership with property owners, hSo installs and operates state of the art networks to provide single source, simple and convenient best-of-breed and competitively priced telecoms and data services to tenants; offering scalable bandwidth and secure solutions, together with a commitment to industry-leading customer service.

hSo has recently hosted its first Broadband seminar where 94 City and West End office agents gathered to learn about the latest developments in communications technology. The event was held 350 Regent's Place, NW1 British Land's flagship office scheme, where over 50% of the space has now been let to occupiers including Capital One and Elexon, with only 57,0000 ft2 remaining.

Owned by British Land, Canary Wharf, Legal & General, Morley and Prudential, hSo is providing Broadband services to many of London's leading office developments including Broadgate and Canary Wharf; and now also serving leading Business Parks including Prudential's GreenPark, Reading and Standard Life's Croxley Park at Watford. hSo has also embarked on regional expansion to serve customers in Birmingham, Dublin, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Bournemouth.

hSo Property Director, Jakes Ferguson comments, "Broadband is now a serious factor in choice of location as telecoms consultants are steering occupiers away from schemes where Broadband connectivity and services are not instantly available at reasonable prices. Forward thinking landlords like Standard Life and Prudential have Broadband enabled their Business Parks; and leading agents are achieving differentiation by actively promoting Broadband enabled properties"

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hSo signs first Wholesaler Agreement

Today, hSo announces the signing of a Wholesaler agreement with LANZ Limited to sell and distribute a select suite of hSo's products and services to small to medium sized businesses in major metropolitan markets. This agreement will enable LANZ, a total communications solution provider, to add value to their customer proposition by facilitating customers' integration of hSo products and services into their existing communications solutions. LANZ are hSos first Wholesaler and were chosen due to their complementary product and services set, similar customer service ethos and similarity in the addressable market. LANZ will be reselling hSo's Voice, Hosting and Vault services and wholesaling Access up to 100mbps backed by hSo customer and technical support.

'We are delighted to expand and strengthen the hSo relationship with LANZ based on our experience with them, their customers and products' said Chris Evans, Managing Director of hSo. 'LANZ's offering complements the hSo product suite and delivers a considerable advantage to our mutual customers. The agreement is a significant milestone for hSo as it reinforces the market's faith in our products and our ability to deliver. More importantly this is another step in enabling us to deliver our revenue plan and excellent service in addition to signing our first reseller last week'.

Buddy Garcha of LANZ says 'this deal is significant for LANZ as we are restructuring and refocusing our market strategy. Through the offering of hSo solutions, we are able to cement our proposition as a 360-degree consultant and service provider. We decided to contract with hSo for a multitude of reasons but the key was that hSo products are easy to sell, easy to implement, are well priced and are backed up by excellent customer service mirroring our approach to market.'

The agreement between hSo and LANZ demonstrates the need for total solutions developed specifically for businesses in the small to medium sized market. The synergy created by the agreement will enable LANZ to deepen the relationship with their customers who will benefit from LANZ's considerable consultative experience together with market-leading, well priced, credible services. This partnership delivers the knowledge and experience of two reputable companies focused on the communications issues that face growing companies.

About hSo

hSo is a customer service focused, integrated communications provider bringing managed voice, Internet, video and data solutions to business customers in UK metropolitan markets.

Working in partnership with property owners, hSo installs and operates next generation networks, to provide simple and convenient best-of-breed telecom and data services to tenants. hSo offers competitively priced, high bandwidth, single source quality, secure and scaleable advanced telecommunications solutions, together with a commitment to industry-leading customer service.

http://www.hso.uk.com

About LANZ

LANZ is a single source provider of Information Technology products, services and support. LANZ is a business Internet Service Provider with recognised expertise in the provision of secure solutions, fully integrated into existing IT infrastructure, from a single workstation through to secure communications with the furthest reaches of the Internet. For over 12 years LANZ's strategy has been to deploy consultancy and maintenance with communication and IT services. It offers a total solutions package to the SME market to enable its customers maintain a well informed IT strategy.

http://www.lanz.co.uk/

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Senior changes at hSo

Today, hSo, the Broadband services provider owned by five of the UK's largest property owners (British Land, Prudential, Morley, Legal & General and Canary Wharf) announced the appointment of Chris Evans as Managing Director, taking over from founder Chris Butchers. Chris Evans joined hSo in September 2001 as Finance Director.

"I'm excited that the board has decided to take our business model to the next level." said Chris Evans. "hSos' core focus will continue to be the accelerated growth of our customer base and revenues in the UK. Our success in London demonstrates that we have a story to tell and unique values that interest both investors and customers."

Prior to joining hSo, Chris Evans was Financial Director of Dolphin Telecommunications Limited, a mobile communications network operator and Group Financial Controller of its parent Dolphin Telecomm plc. Prior to this, Chris Evans was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young responsible for services to clients in the technology, communications and construction industries.

At the same time, hSo announced that Chris Butchers, Chief Executive Officer and founder has stepped down to pursue hSos' expansion into Europe. "Our experience in London demonstrated that it is vital to work with the leading property and investment partners and to select the right markets," said Butchers. "We anticipate attracting a robust portfolio of properties using both existing contacts and identifying new opportunities in the marketplace. I am delighted that Chris Evans has agreed to lead the company at this exciting time. His knowledge and experience will be of great value to us as we look to expand the business throughout Europe."

Chris Butchers was Chief Executive Officer of hSo from March 2000 when the company was founded by ARC Associates, the London-based investment banking and advisory firm specialising in the TMT industries. Prior to this he was Managing Director of ARC's advisory service. His worldwide experience in the telecom and IT sectors spans over twenty years.

Property Director Appointed

Further, hSo has announced today the appointment of new Property Director, Jakes Ferguson. Continuing the focus of working with leading landlords to offer their tenants high-speed, Broadband services, Jakes' role includes increasing the number of properties served by hSo and growing the brand across the European property industry. Jakes Ferguson has over 25 years experience in Real Estate working principally in the office markets of London & Hong Kong, and in office development in the UK and France. He was a partner of international property consultants Jones Lang Wootton and development director of Arlington Property Developments, before running Property Dynamics advising corporate occupiers on real estate across the UK.

hSo is already serving customers in over 8 million ft2 of offices in Greater London owned by 30 leading landlords. The company has recently been appointed Broadband provider of choice to Standard Life Assurance Company and wired its leading business park Croxley Park, near Watford. hSo has also wired GreenPark Reading, the Prudential's leading 2.25 million ft2 business park on the M4 where occupiers include Cisco Systems, Veritas and Logica.

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