[October 26, 2000]

BellSouth, IPAXS Complete DSL VoIP Trial To Supply Dial-Tone For Small Business And Work-At-Home Customers

BellSouth announced the completion of a technical trial of IP telephony utilizing BellSouth's DSL broadband access.

The trial, conducted with Tampa-based IPAXS Corporation, supplied BellSouth small business and work-at-home customers with the new technology for a three-month period. Data collected from the trial will enable BellSouth to understand and establish technical capabilities for integrating voice and data and plan for future customer offerings.

"Many people think of VoIP (voice over IP) as a bypass technology, but BellSouth is pursuing this technology across many application areas as a key component of our network and service evolution. The successful completion of this trial has provided us with information that is helping shape our future technology directions and service offerings as we migrate from a circuit-switched to a packet-centric network," according to Bill Smith, Executive Vice President - Network Services and CTO.

"We share the excitement with BellSouth in the successful completion of the technical trial," said Mohsen Behnam, President and Chief Executive Officer of IPAXS Corporation. "Our VoIP is the next-generation telephony solution that integrates toll-quality telephony applications across various broadband technologies with increased flexibility and functionality over traditional telephone systems."

Voice over IP is seen as a next generation telephony solution that will provide customers advanced functionality while integrating PCs with traditional phone service. It has the potential to allow customers to add, move or delete voice lines without a service call. "This trial demonstrates BellSouth's commitment to explore and develop leading-edge technologies," said Bill Story, Vice President of DSL Marketing and Product Development. "We see voice over IP as a future offering that will give our customers increased flexibility with their services," he continued.

The DSL Voice-over IP technical trial was conducted in the Atlanta area with BellSouth small business and work-at-home customers. IPAXS, an IP Telephony systems manufacturer, supplied the technology and hardware necessary for the trial. "By using BellSouth's existing ADSL capability to carry IP-based voice, we have been able to demonstrate the flexibility of our DSL structure for offering new features," stated Dave Kettler, Vice President - Science and Technology and Chief Architect. "BellSouth is aggressively exploring ways to bring new multimedia applications across our emerging broadband network. Voice over IP is one of many such services," Kettler continued.

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