MetaSwitch Underscores Industry Leadership with Multimedia-Enhanced Telephony Architecture (META), Joins IMS Forum

Alameda, CA: March 15, 2006. MetaSwitch today further strengthened its position as a thought leader in the rapidly-evolving field of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communications, labeled by industry experts as the network of the future, with the release of a technology strategy white paper detailing the vendor's innovative Multimedia-Enhanced Telephony Architecture (META). The META initiative complements MetaSwitch's increased leadership role in the IMS community through membership in the recently-established IMS Forum, to which it brings valuable real-world experience derived from deployments with more than 150 carrier customers.

Initially developed by the 3GPP mobile standards consortium, IMS has emerged as the most widely accepted blueprint for converged wireless and wireline networks. However, many carriers, particularly those with legacy wireline networks, have substantial concerns about the complexity and risk of migrating to a fully IMS-compliant architecture. In fact, many are even uncertain exactly what an "IMS-compliant architecture" is, since the IMS leaves many key areas, including the definition of physical network elements and support for many legacy wireline services, unaddressed.

Building on MetaSwitch's proven IMS-ready session control, media/signaling gateway and application server technologies, META is designed to allay these concerns. META defines a physical implementation of the IMS architecture that addresses legacy feature equivalence, service creation, integration with emerging "digital lifestyle" multimedia devices, back-office integration, and security. META also offers a real-world migration platform from the "legacy world" to pure IP.

"MetaSwitch is garnering increasing industry recognition for its success in delivering a robust switching platform architected around the core IMS standards, such as SIP and H.248," said Stéphane Téral, Directing Analyst, Service Provider Next Gen Voice and Mobile Core, Infonetics Research. "The pragmatically-grounded META strategy takes MetaSwitch to the next level, offering a clear path to full IMS compliance while maintaining compatibility with legacy networks."

"With META, we are responding to carrier demand for real-world migration solutions that build on the powerful concepts in IMS but can be deployed for new services and generate revenue today," said Martin Taylor, MetaSwitch Vice President of Technology Strategy. "In this context, we are pleased to be part of the IMS Forum to help ensure interoperability of our award-winning IMS solutions and communicate the benefits of IMS-based networks to a wider audience."

The mission of the IMS Forum is to accelerate the adoption of IP Multimedia Subsystems by providing an environment for discussion and resolution of real world implementation issues. MetaSwitch's participation in the IMS Forum follows the company's belief in multi-vendor interoperability based on open standards, and builds on its contributions to a variety of industry groups that are focusing on related topics.

"With its deployment experience in wireline VoIP networks, MetaSwitch brings valuable technical expertise and market momentum to the IMS Forum," said Michael Khalilian, chairman and president of the IMS Forum.

In a keynote presentation later this week, John Lazar, MetaSwitch CEO, will address the topic of shifting social behavior and generational trends as key drivers for IMS technologies. The session, at the VON Spring 2006 conference in San Jose, California, is titled "Understanding IMS (Innovative, Multimodal Subscribers, that is)" and is scheduled for Thursday, March 16th at 12pm. Next week, as part of an IMS Forum-led panel at COMPTEL PLUS Conference & Expo, Matt Byrd, Director of Product Marketing at MetaSwitch, will be speaking on "IMS: Separating Fact from Fiction," on Tuesday, March 21st at 9.45am in the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt Randle Ballroom A.

The MetaSwitch white paper titled "IMS Migration Challenges and Solutions: Towards a Multimedia-Enhanced Telephony Architecture" is available for download at http://www.metaswitch.com/rescenter/whitepapers.htm.

About IMS Forum

The IMS Forum is a global, non-profit industry association devoted to interoperable IMS services and solutions. The mission of the Forum is to accelerate the adoption of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) by providing an environment for discussion and resolution of real-world implementation issues relating to interoperability, best practices, and standards-based architectures. In addition, the Forum will provide consultancy to the industry, service providers, and vendors on best practices and approaches for IMS rollouts and interconnectivity. For additional information or to join the IMS Forum, please visit www.IMSForum.org.

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch (www.metaswitch.com) is an industry-leading vendor of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) switching and applications solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its widely deployed call agent, media/signaling gateway and application server platform supports a full range of legacy Class 4/5 capabilities and hosted unified communications services, and scales from a few hundred to millions of subscribers in both integrated and distributed configurations. Customers include incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers, as well as operators of broadband wireless, cable and fiber networks.

MetaSwitch is a division of established telecom technology provider Data Connection. The company is consistently profitable and privately held, with main US offices in California and Virginia, and European headquarters in London, UK.

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.