Press Release: MetaSwitch and Acme Packet Offer Service Providers a Carrier-Grade VoIP Network Solution

Joint solution solves tough security and addressing issues required for high quality Voice over IP services

Alameda, CA: September 23, 2003. MetaSwitch, the leading provider of broadband Class 5 switching solutions, today announced a joint solution with Acme Packet^TM, developer of session border controllers that will allow service providers to offer true carrier-grade VoIP services. After successful completion of rigorous interoperability testing of the MetaSwitch VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch and the Acme Packet Net-Net^TM Session Director (SD), the joint solution is currently being evaluated by a Tier 1 carrier for delivery of residential and business services.

Service providers now are able to confidently offer IP-based voice services with levels of quality, reliability and security that meet and exceed what customers have come to expect from their traditional PSTN service.

"Today traditional service providers face ever-increasing competition from new competitors with creative new Internet-based offers," said John Lazar, MetaSwitch Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The problem is that deploying a reliable end-to-end carrier-grade solution requires service providers to address a number of difficult deployment issues, including IP address translation, firewall traversal and security, while still maintaining traditional reliability levels. MetaSwitch and Acme Packet are together able to provide service providers with the highest quality end-to-end IP-based voice services solution."

"A really compelling aspect of this solution is that service providers can now offer voice, data and Internet traffic over a single bandwidth-challenged access link with complete confidence in voice service availability and quality," said Jim Hourihan, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, Acme Packet. "Our NAT traversal, topology hiding, admission control, DoS protection and high availability features are all critical to creating this confidence."

The Acme Packet Net-Net SD, a high performance, high capacity session border controller, satisfies critical security, service assurance and law enforcement requirements at IP-IP network borders - between service provider-subscriber, or between two service providers. It simultaneously supports SIP, MGCP and H.323 networks and network interworking by actively participating in session signaling and controlling media flows. The Net-Net SD in its compact 1U package supports up to 32,000 simultaneous sessions and is available in a high availability configuration that ensures no loss of active calls or signaling state information.

The MetaSwitch VP3500 is the leading broadband-enabled Next Generation Class 5 Switch with over 30 deployments, and support for VoIP, VoATM and GR-303 as well as advanced Web-based subscriber services. Service providers are able to simultaneously serve customers in multiple calling areas with over 95 Class 5 features and services. The MetaSwitch VP3500 is easy to deploy and scales from 400 to over 250,000 subscribers in a single rack. Built-in CALEA support enables service providers to satisfy lawful intercept requirements.

About Acme Packet

Acme Packet enables network service providers to deliver premium, interactive communications - voice, video and multimedia sessions - across IP network borders. Our award-winning Net-Net family of session border controllers satisfies critical security, service assurance and law enforcement requirements in wireline, wireless and cable networks. Established in August 2000 by networking industry veterans, Acme Packet is a privately held company headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts.

For more information, visit us at www.acmepacket.com.

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch, a division of privately held Data Connection, is the result of 22 years of experience supplying leading-edge technology to the telecommunications industry. Data Connection’s track record of consistent profitability ensures long-term commitment to product development and customer support. The widely deployed MetaSwitch VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch offers service providers an immediate solution for broadband (VoIP and/or VoATM) and POTS service and a future-proof "softswitch" architecture for enhanced applications.

MetaSwitch has offices in Alameda, CA, Dallas, TX and Reston, VA in the US and London, Chester and Edinburgh in the UK.

For more information, see www.metaswitch.com.

Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.