Remi Communications Selects MetaSwitch for IMS

San Diego, CA. - CompTel PLUS Convention & Expo - March 20, 2006. Remi Communications, a Pennsylvania-based "smart communications" provider, has selected MetaSwitch, a leading vendor of carrier switching and applications solutions, for its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) implementation. While IMS, which merges the capabilities of the Internet with wireline and wireless telephony, has been widely embraced by large incumbent carriers, Remi may be one of the first major competitive providers to adopt the technology.

Remi Communications was founded in 2001 by a management team led by David J. Malfara, Sr., formerly president of Z-Tel Network Services, Inc., and the founder of a number of other successful telecommunications ventures including Pennsylvania Alternative Communications. In addition to his current role as President and CEO of Remi, Malfara is a member of the management committee of The Pew Consulting Group and a founding director of Boathouse Communications Partners LLC, and serves on the board of directors of COMPTEL, the leading industry association for competitive service providers. With this experience, Malfara has a clear understanding of both the technology and business implications of IMS.

"I strongly believe in the potential of IMS to enable the 'holy grail' of convergence and an open feature creation environment," said Malfara. "I also knew that we needed a solution that was built for prime-time - including the ability to deliver full equivalence for legacy Class 5 features including E911, CALEA and LNP. MetaSwitch offered the only solution that provided proven Class 5 capabilities, including business-class services, with an open IMS architecture. For our customers, this translates into continued support of all their existing features - plus the availability of exciting new services such as unified messaging, PC-based call control and support for IP endpoints such as soft-phones."

Designed to address the challenge of delivering competitive, flexible telecommunications services to large enterprise and government users, Remi's network is built on MetaSwitch's proven session control, media/signaling gateway and application server components. IMS call session control function is implemented by MetaSwitch CA9020 Call Agent servers deployed in two hubs in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with MetaSwitch MG3510 Media Gateways located throughout Remi's serving area, to achieve the levels of redundancy and reliability demanded by Remi's blue-chip customers.

In addition to robust call control and media gateways, Remi selected MetaSwitch for its award-winning IMS application server, the UC9000 Unified Communications System. The UC9000 platform delivers a compelling range of new services integrating, for example, presence and instant messaging with traditional voice calling. These services are available to all Remi's subscribers, whether they are using Internet Protocol (IP) phones or regular analog handsets. Perhaps more importantly, the MetaSwitch solution provides an open platform for the development of new services in the future, based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard as specified by IMS.

"For carriers such as Remi, who are strongly focused on meeting customers' next-generation communications needs, MetaSwitch recognizes the integral role IMS will play in fueling an open applications environment that promises to completely change the rules of telecom," said Andy Randall, Vice President of Marketing for MetaSwitch. "MetaSwitch is committed to enabling carriers to quickly and cost effectively architect their next-generation networks for new multimedia-enhanced IP services - without compromising any of the legacy capabilities they need to continue supporting to enable a smooth migration."

MetaSwitch is exhibiting this week at the CompTel PLUS Convention & Expo (Booth 513) in San Diego, California. In addition, Matt Byrd, MetaSwitch Director of Product Marketing, will be speaking on the topic of "IMS: Separating Fact from Fiction," while David Malfara, CEO of Remi Communications, will be addressing the subject of "The Alternate Access Universe: Options for the UNE Transition." Both sessions are scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, March 21.

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.

About Remi Communications

Remi Communications is a leading provider of voice, data, video and application services in support of the business activities of enterprise customers. Remi's COMPLETE network optimizes performance and efficiency in subscriber access, inter-exchange transport, application development and implementation, and security policy administration.

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. Copyright © 2006 Data Connection Limited.