[March 28, 2000]

Netopia And VocalData Partner To Offer IP Centrex Over DSL

Netopia, Inc., a market leader in providing DSL Internet equipment and e-commerce Web platforms to small and medium size businesses, and VocalData, Inc., a technology leader in the emerging IP local exchange softswitch market, announced that they have signed a joint development and marketing agreement and have successfully completed interoperability and Quality of Service (QoS) tests between VocalData's IP local exchange softswitch and Netopia's DSL Internet equipment. The agreement will enable the companies to combine their product offerings to provide the first IP centrex and local exchange solution over DSL.

IP centrex over DSL will not only allow new classes of service providers to enter the lucrative voice services market, but will also significantly facilitate the bundling of those voice services with Internet access and other IP-based services.

"IP centrex over DSL allows service providers to take an important and significant first step into convergence services," said Tom Jenkins, director of consulting at TeleChoice, a leading telecommunications consultancy. "With businesses requesting IP centrex services, and DSL being one of the fastest growing telecommunications technologies, the partnership of VocalData and Netopia can give service providers much needed economic and strategic benefits in the competitive telecommunications market."

The Netopia/VocalData IP centrex over DSL solution makes it very feasible for data service providers such as carriers, ISPs, ASPs (Application Service Providers), MTU (Multi Tenant Unit) service providers and others to offer converged voice and data broadband services quickly and inexpensively. VocalData's standards-based IP centrex solution includes equipment and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) software which provides all signaling, call control and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) interfaces required to provide centrex-class and local telephone services over IP, and requires just a PRI (Primary Rate Interface) to the PSTN. Netopia's DSL CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) provides the DSL connectivity, data routing, and QoS required to allow IP-based voice traffic share the DSL link with data traffic.

IP centrex over DSL allows service providers to offer a bundled package that includes toll-quality PBX-like voice service, high-speed Internet access and a wide range of IP-based services, all over a single SDSL connection for a low monthly fee. As the Netopia R7100 SDSL Router and D7100 SDSL DSU can be centrally managed from a Copper Mountain Networks DSL concentrator located at the central office, QoS can be monitored and optimized.

"With Copper Mountain DSL concentrators and Netopia customer premise equipment (CPE), service providers are ensured delivery of IP services like VocalData's IP centrex solution with end-to-end QoS," said Muni Perzov, Copper Mountain's voice product manager. "The combination of provisioning ease, effective DSL transport, and prioritized transport of voice traffic creates new opportunities for service providers to deliver business services over DSL."

IP centrex over DSL also offers substantial benefits to business end-customers: its advanced QoS features ensure that toll-quality voice service can be maintained across the DSL link for local bypass or over a private network link for long distance bypass. All voice and data traffic is routed over the customer's LAN, eliminating the need for the separate voice network wiring required by traditional solutions; while all call processing software resides in the service provider's network. Because the service provider can offer a "one stop shopping solution" for bundled local voice, long distance and Internet services, all the customer's communications costs are accounted for on a single monthly bill. Also, since the entire service is managed and maintained by the service provider, customers can keep focused on their internal business needs, without having to dedicate an employee to manage their telecommunications services.

"We are very pleased to partner with a DSL market leader like Netopia," said Steve Bakke, chief technology officer of VocalData. "Netopia and VocalData's partnership reflects both companies' intensified focus on providing leading-edge, converged communications technology for service providers and their small business customers."

"VocalData's softswitch technology allows Netopia to offer our service provider partners a package that will make it easy for them to provide advanced IP centrex services over DSL," said Barbara Tien, director of product marketing, Netopia Internet Equipment Division. "Our partnership with VocalData will significantly strengthen Netopia's position in the emerging market for voice services over DSL."

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