Axia's Covage Adds Seine Essonne to its National Network

CALGARY, May 9, 2012 /CNW/ - Axia NetMedia Corporation (Axia) today announced that its French-based company Covage has been chosen by the Urban Community of Seine Essonne to sell next generation network (NGN) services for a period of 25 years to enterprise and Fibre to the Home (FTTH) customers. Network construction will begin in the second half of this calendar year with the network being fully activated by calendar 2014. Covage expects to fund the capital requirements for this project from its current and future cash flows.

The Urban Community of Seine Essonne is a suburban community in the southwest of Paris and in the Ile-de-France region of France. It includes five municipalities with 65,000 residents in 32,000 homes and nearly 1,000 addressable enterprises in 12 business parks.  It will have 235 kilometres of fibre that will also connect 100 public service sites such as health facilities, secondary schools and town halls within 18 months.  Covage will also sell NGN services to Retail Service Providers (RSPs) in the area. Covage expects initial sales to begin during the first half of calendar 2013.

Jean-Michel Soulier, President of Covage commented, "Seine Essonne is an attractive network for Covage as it borders our existing Sem@for77 network and will provide us with opportunities for economies of scale and commercial synergies.  Already 70 of our RSPs have indicated their willingness to offer their services on the Seine Essonne network."

With the addition of Seine Essonne, Covage's nationwide fibre infrastructure network will now include 18 regional network segments and a 3,700 km national fibre network backbone.

About Axia

Axia sells services over fibre optic communications infrastructure in jurisdictions that have implemented the Axia NGN Solution. To date, Axia has networks in Alberta, France, Singapore, Spain and Massachusetts. Axia trades on the TSX under the symbol "AXX".

This News Release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "should", "believe", "anticipate", "may", "plan", "will", "continue", "intend", "expect", "estimate" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.  These statements are based on our current expectations, estimates, forecasts and assumptions about the operating environment, economies and markets in which we operate and are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.  Examples of these statements would include those where Axia forecasts its success and timing in winning new NGN business, the timing of completion and estimated total costs of our networks, the revenues and operating costs associated with these networks over time, and Axia's ability to generate future cash flows and avail itself of other financing alternatives given current market conditions.  The assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information, include, but are not limited to, changes in customer markets, changes in demand for our services, our inability to deliver services in a timely and cost efficient manner, technological change, general economic conditions and other risks detailed from time to time in our ongoing filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including those in our Annual Information Form, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com.  Given these assumptions, risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.  Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please visit Axia's website at www.axia.com, or contact:

Dawn Tinling
VP, Investor Relations and Communications
Axia NetMedia Corporation
[phone]
[email protected]