Lucent Technologies Builds On Voice Over Internet Protocol - VoIP - Industry Leadership With Contract From United Telesis - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Feb 28, 2000

Lucent Technologies Wednesday announced it is supplying its industry-leading voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products to United Telesis, a VoIP communications provider based in Athens, Ga. The contract, worth more than four million dollars, covers a network spanning 19 states.

United Telesis is using Lucent's MultiVoice for the MAX 6000 and MAX TNT VoIP gateways as the cornerstones of its network. United Telesis currently provides toll-quality long distance services using VoIP to students at more than 250 colleges and universities across the United States. The network can also provide dial-up and dedicated Internet access and has the geographic reach to connect potentially up to 50 million residential users, giving United Telesis the ability to grow their business in the future with new services and new customers.

"Our college telephone network customers alone have billed more than two million long distance minutes in the past three weeks and we expect that to double in even less time, so this is a critical stage in the growth of our business," said Glen Rinkowski, president, United Telesis. "The ability of Lucent's VoIP equipment to scale up to meet increasing demand without sacrificing quality or reliability will be important as we expand into more markets and sign-up new customers."

The long distance calls of United Telesis customers are sent and received over the company's VoIP network and are seamlessly exchanged with the public telephone network. United Telesis chose Lucent's VoIP solutions because they combine the cost efficiencies of packet voice technology with the quality and reliability typically associated only with circuit-based voice technology. These network capabilities translate into an especially attractive offer for students - long distance service with the quality and reliability they expect but at a more affordable price.

"This agreement not only builds on Lucent's leadership in VoIP, but it also demonstrates how aggressive we are in winning and supporting new customers in this market," said Kathy Meier, general manager of marketing and technical sales for Lucent's VoIP Access Networks group. "Emerging service providers like United Telesis need established, carrier-class products like Lucent's MultiVoice family that enable them to deliver competitive services quickly so they can start earning revenue."

The United Telesis network demonstrates the broad array of products Lucent has to create a multiservice IP network. Some of the key products included in Lucent's network solution for United Telesis include:

- MultiVoice for the MAX 6000 and MAX TNT - the MultiVoice for the MAX 6000 and the MAX TNT support the ITU-T H.323 standard for transmitting toll-quality voice and fax over managed IP networks and are built upon Lucent's market-leading MAX 6000 and MAX TNT remote access platforms.

- Access Point routers - award-winning, Internet access routers located at the edge of campus networks that offer world class IP routing, VPN security, quality of service, firewall and policy management services.

- Cajun P120 Workgroup Switches - combines a high-performance switch fabric, flexible expansion capability, simplified installation and management and sophisticated network monitoring in a low-cost 10/100/1000 Ethernet workgroup solution.

For the fourth quarter 1999, Synergy Research Group ranked Lucent number one in VoIP manufacturer sales and ports shipped to service providers with more than 35 percent of the market.

United Telesis, founded in 1997, originally marketed long distance services to students at the University of Georgia but expanded in 1999 to provide long distance services to students at more than 250 colleges and universities across 19 states. The company plans to leverage its growing network to serve more colleges and universities as well as expand into new markets and provide other IP-based services, including: Internet access, consumer services and a global VoIP clearinghouse business. More information on United Telesis' current services can be found at www.collegetelephone.com.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Laboratories is the research and development arm for the company. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.