CopperCom and Picus Forge Largest Voice Over DSL Deal to Date for 6 Million Voice Lines - Picus Communications - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Sept 20, 1999

CopperCom, a Silicon Valley company that is Giving Voice to DSL, and Picus Communications, an international telecommunications company, Monday announced a contract, worth $24 million in the first year, under which Picus will purchase CopperComplete DSL.

This carrier-class equipment will enable Picus to provide integrated voice and data over DSL as early as November 1999 in several Mid-Atlantic cities. With potential deployment of 6 million voice lines over three years, this is the largest deal to date in the burgeoning Voice over DSL market and will enable the delivery of up to 16 phone lines plus high-speed data over a single copper loop.

Under the terms of the agreement, CopperCom will supply the CopperComplete DSL solution, including the CopperCom Gateway and the CopperCom MXR, to support the first-year deployment of 126,000 voice lines, plus high-speed data, over DSL to small and medium size business and residential users.

This service will be available initially in the Hampton Roads, VA area, as well as Richmond, VA, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC. It is also planned for an additional 160 East Coast cities including Baltimore, Raleigh and Charlotte.

Nokia will supply Picus with the Nokia D50 Speedlink DSLAM, and is also responsible for project management, implementation and integration of the network and will provide an extensive range of operations support, training and other competence transfer services to Picus. (see related release)

"After evaluating the solutions from all Voice over DSL vendors, we selected CopperCom's products because they deliver what we need -- 16 phone lines plus high-speed data delivered via carrier-class equipment," said Thomas Flake, executive vice president of business development for Picus.

"The CopperComplete DSL products are the only ones that meet our stringent requirements for reliability and true toll-quality voice."

According to Cynthia Ringo, CopperCom's president and CEO, "Picus is a real leader in providing customers with bundled services. A lot of companies are talking about adding voice to DSL networks, but Picus is actually at the forefront and fulfilling this pent-up demand. We're really excited about helping them provide these services nationwide."

CopperComplete DSL CopperComplete DSL enables delivery of 16 voice lines and high-speed data over a single copper pair in the local loop. It is the only Voice over DSL solution in the market that provides true toll-quality voice in either PCM or 32K ADPCM with support for echo cancellation, ensuring that customers receive the same voice quality over DSL that they receive with their local telephone service.

The CopperComplete DSL architecture consists of two products, the CopperCom MXR for the customer premises, and the CopperCom Gateway, a device which sits between the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) and a Class 5 Switch at the service provider's Central Office or Regional Switching Center.

The CopperComplete DSL architecture features true telephony, seamless integration, flexibility and efficiency, ease of provisioning and management, and 99.999% reliability.

Designed from the beginning to be NEBs compliant, the CopperCom Gateway is a carrier-class system with protection switching so that calls are never lost. It is a fully redundant, chassis-based system that houses hot-swappable cards for system control, ATM, and T1 connections, as well as a dual packet bus.

The high-capacity CopperCom Gateway can support from four to 44 T1 connections -- 1056 simultaneous compressed calls -- in a single shelf. Using oversubscription, the capacity of a single gateway can increase up to eight-fold. Multiple gateway chassis can also be stacked.

The CopperCom MXR is a small customer premise device that combines data and voice traffic onto a DSL line. Easily installed and managed, it is a full DSL data router that also supports analog connections from any telephone, fax machine, key system, and PBX. The basic 4-port product, MXR 100, is a fixed configuration device designed for the upscale residence.

The MXR 400, designed for small businesses, is a modular 16-port device that has a base configuration of 4 ports and is expandable in 4-port increments. In addition to providing standard data routing and bridging features, the MXR is easily managed and provisioned by a service provider. The CopperCom MXR is interoperable with DSLAMs from the industry's premiere DSL equipment providers.

Picus is a full service international telecommunications company, providing high-speed broadband voice and data transmission, Internet access, local telephone service, and technical support services. Picus was the first telecommunications company to offer bundled services to its customers, on one bill, including high speed Internet access, local telephone, and long distance telephone service. The US headquarters of Picus are located in Hampton Roads, Virginia while its European headquarters are located in Lugano, Switzerland.