1.

Telex Services

a.

What is RS Telex Number?

RS represent Republic of Singapore and our country code is 87

b.

Why RS Number?

It a local identity and represent your business presence in Singapore

c.

What is the difference between holding RS Number versus Oversea Number ?
(Example: UK Number)

If you are holding a oversea number like UK number:

• For sending to RS Number, it will cost you more for delivery
• For receiving, although there is no cost to you, but it will cost your business partner to paid more to send telex messages to you

d.

Can I retain my existing telex number?

We can assist to retain your telex number subject to availability, otherwise we will assist in allocation the next available telex number.

e.

What changes for existing SingTel subscribers after 30 April 2009?

Telex services will continue to be available in Singapore after SingTel cessation

2.

About SwissTelex and AimsOne

a.

Who is SwissTelex?

SwissTelex is a spin-off company founded in March 2006 in collaboration with Swisscom and the Swisscom Venture Fund. It is responsible for running the national telex service in Switzerland and many other countries, including Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Israel, Slovenia, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and UK (former Cable & Wireless telex service). The operations staff and infrastructure are the same as when the service was run by Swisscom

b.

Who is AimsOne?

AimsOne is a 100% local owned company, registered as limited company in Singapore.

AimsOne has successful bid for the Auction of Telex on 19th December 2008 for the allocation of the following telex codes:

• Telex Destination Code – 87 and
• Telex Network Identification Code - RS

AimsOne is not a Telex Operator herself but is the Holder of the Contract with subscribers for provision of the SwissTelex telex services. AimsOne will invoice the subscriber(s) for the telex services subscribed in Singapore.

c.

What is the relationship between AimsOne and SwissTelex?

AimsOne and SwissTelex have signed an agreement which will enable Telex subscribers in Singapore to continue to use the telex service without any change to their current numbers, international access code (87) or answerback.

After customers that have transferred to SwissTelex service, they will no longer use SingTel channels but deal directly with SwissTelex (and/or AimsOne).

3.

Connection

a.

How am I connected from Singapore to Switzerland?

Normally the physical connection is via (secure) Internet.

b.

I do not have a permanent public IP address.
Can I still be connected to telex?

Yes, you can be connected without permanent public IP address

c.

Do you have solution that allowed me to retain my current telex host software or telex machine?

Yes, the “Virtual” telex line(s) is a solution for customers who do not wish to change their workflow with their current telex system. The virtual telex lines are connected to the SwissTelex telex exchange over secure internet using a PC-based SwissTelex hardware unit (called a sub-ITL gateway) installed on the customer’s premises.

The sub-ITL allows each of the customer’s telex lines to be mapped to a dedicated circuit in the SwissTelex Exchange. Up to 8 telex lines can be handled by a single sub-ITL gateway.

d.

Do you have solution that allowed me to send and receive telex message without owning any telex host software or telex machine?

Yes, the “e-Telex” services which allow you to use your current e-mail client to send and receive telex messages.

4.

SwissTelex Exchange

a.

What is the redundancy measure at SwissTelex Exchange?

You can be assured of the same high standard and quality of service that SwissTelex offers to Swiss customers and many other customers throughout the world. The Ascom Hasler T203 exchange has a proven track record of reliability, in Switzerland and in other countries world-wide. It is designed with duplication (and even triplication) of all the vital functions of the exchange and has for many years satisfied a high system availability figure (typically 99.99%).

The built-in redundancy of the exchange is further backed by the presence of cold stand-by in the event of a disaster recovery, and she has all necessary long-term support arrangements in place for hardware and software maintenance.

b.

For banks, test-key telex is of high confidentiality, what assurance can SwissTelex provide to ensure that their messages are kept confidential?

Using sub-ITL, telexes are sent and received in real time and are not stored either in the telex exchange or in the sub-ITL

5.

Security for sub-ITL gateway

a.

Am I protected on the public internet?

Yes. Real-time links are made as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connections.

b.

Can someone pretend to be me?

No, provided you keep your password resp. digital certificate safe.

c.

Can my answerback be simulated?

For users with SwissTelex digital certificate – Your answerback is stored in your digital certificate. Any attempt to tamper with this will invalidate the certificate and make it unusable.

6.

Transition

a.

Do I have to sign a new contract?

Yes. You will be required to sign a contract for the service with AimsOne.

b.

When can I transfer?

Upon the approval from IDA for service transition, it can be any time prior to SingTel Service closure date.

c.

How long will I be off the air in transferring from SingTel to SwissTelex?

The transfer takes minutes subjected to prior registration. However, for hardware ordering on sub-ITL gateway and accessories required 5 to 8 working days leadtime.

7.

Pricing

a.

Will I have to pay any once-off charge when I transfer to SwissTelex?

For solution requiring no installation of hardware there will only be a minimal fee for setup, number registration and delivery of the software and/or certificates (if any).

For solution requiring installation of hardware there will be a charge to cover the cost of the hardware.

b.

What is the telex rate for sending to international destinations?

We maintain the same telex rate as SingTel for fiscal year 2009 and after 2009, we may offer lower rate for most popular delivery destinations.

8.

Value-Added Services

a.

Is incoming telex auto-hunting services still available?

Subscriber can have up to 62 telex lines per telex number. Auto hunting is performed for incoming calls to the telex number according to the hunting order setup in the exchange i.e. If the first choice line is busy (or out-of-order) then the next available is chosen, and so on.

b.

Does SwissTelex support broadcast and Store and Forward services

Both broadcast and Store/Forward services are available. The rules are as for Swiss subscribers. (The calling format differs to the existing SingTel’s format)

c.

Are there any changes to the calling procedure such as message reference, date/time follows by “GA” when a call is raised? Also can the call be cleared with “VVVV”?

Yes, we retain the calling procedure message format including the auto-clearing “VVVV” with duration advice.

9.

Related to Sub-ITL gateway

a.

Are the SwissTelex certificates issues by a 3rd party CA (Certificate Authority) or are they self assigned?

SwissTelex run her own Certificate Authority and are issuing and signing certificates from that server. This server is not on the internet. The certificates used for telex business (sub ITL/ hub ITL) are all issued by SwissTelex, and the software on SwissTelex sub-ITL gateway verifies that the certificates presented are valid (the usual verifications) and in addition, verifies that the client certificate has been issued and signed by SwissTelex CA. If not, connection is refused.

b.

Can you also confirm whether the PC will have any antivirus software installed and whether the Window XP OS gets updated?

No antivirus software is installed and we do not run any automatic updates. Our reasoning for this is as follows:

• The XP-Pro firewall on the sub-ITL will block ALL ports except the port used by the sub-ITL to connect to the hub-ITL.
• The sub-ITL machine is NOT used for internet navigation or Email (and should therefore never get infected messages/files).
• Since the firewall is blocking ALL incoming access, we are not a target for any of the attacks aiming at Windows vulnerabilities.
• We do NOT apply ANY updates from Microsoft because:
• The updates are mostly for services that we do not use and which are anyway not running or accessible from outside (blocked by the FW).
• Updates might disrupt traffic. Updates sometimes reboot the machine, sometimes reboots are blocked until a human reply. Some updates in the past had totally blocked proper internet access (XP SP2 for example).
• Updates may apply changes that would open things that we had previously closed, or re-run services we had previously disabled.

Updated 19 February 2009