[September 7, 2004]

As VoIP Spreads, Qovia Expands

BY JOHANNE TORRES

As the adoption of Voice over IP (VoIP) (define - news - alert - tutorial) services develops a growing market in the U.S., providers are on a roll with expansion plans galore. Among those, Qovia, Inc. just announced a major office expansion within its U.S. operations. The company plans to grow their facilities by as much as 50 percent.

Qovia (news � alert) is expanding its current employee roster of 60, as the company increases its engineering and VoIP management lab facilities. The company plans to enlarge its office headquarters in Frederick, Maryland's 270 Technology Park. Qovia just opened new satellite offices in Denver, CO; Livermore, CA; and Toronto, Canada during the past year.

During this business expansion , Qovia also launched a new line of VoIP products and services including voice management tools for IP telecom vendors like Cisco, Nortel, 3Com and the like.

"When we moved into our current offices, we had no idea that we would outgrow them in less than a year," said Qovia CEO Richard Tworek. "Yet with the tremendous growth we have experienced in assembling the VoIP management industry's leading engineering and sales teams, we needed more space and we needed it right away! By being able to expand into space that adjoins our current facility, we can continue our growth without the disruption that often goes along with moving."

Earlier this summer, the company filed a patent application for a method to identify and block VoIP Spam and prevent security problems such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that have the potential to overload voice servers and affect system reliability. The patent application, titled �System and Method for Broadcasting VoIP Messages,� covers the use of VoIP for emergency broadcast as well as provides for methodologies to prevent inappropriate use of VoIP applications, such as Spam over Internet Telephony, also known as SPIT, or VoIP Spam.

Maryland-based Qovia was founded in June 2002 and has received up to $16.1 million in venture capital funding so far from Canaan Partners, Nokia Venture Partners; Anthem Capital; and the State of Maryland. Qovia�s VoIP Monitoring and Management System (VMMS) offers software tools that manage, monitor and maintain Internet phone systems.

Qovia, Inc.

www.qovia.com