Lucent Technologies Announces STSI.net as First Customer for New Version of Industry-leading MultiVoice VoIP Software - Product Announcement

Cambridge Telcom Report, May 29, 2000

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) Tuesday announced the availability of the latest version of its MultiVoice voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) software. The company also announced that STSI.net, an Atlanta-based wholesale provider of IP telephony, Internet access and e-commerce services, is the first customer to deploy the new software across its network.

The new MultiVoice software release includes a number of enhancements that deliver true multiservice VoIP functionality to give service providers more flexibility and revenue options in their network. The new software enables service providers to carry conventional, pre-paid and calling card traffic on a single VoIP network based on MultiVoice gateways and gatekeepers. Other VoIP networks typically support a single service requiring service providers to purchase additional gateways and gatekeepers when they want to offer more than one type of service.

"The ability to deliver multiple services from a single VoIP gateway enables us to meet the growing demand for communications services from a wide range of customers, including consumers, businesses and other service providers," said Bob Morris, vice president of operations, STSI.net. "We're already generating more than 30 million minutes of VoIP traffic per month and expect that to increase dramatically every month."

STSI.net owns and operates a nationwide network for VoIP and Internet access services. The network currently includes over 60 points of presence (PoPs) in the U.S. with the ability to serve 152 metropolitan areas and 65 percent of the population. STSI.net also has agreements with several international service providers to terminate international voice traffic.

STSI.net's network is based exclusively on Lucent equipment, including the MultiVoice for the MAX and MAX TNT, BSTDX 9000 and CBX 500 Multiservice wide area network switches with IP Navigator Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and NavisAccess and NavisCore network management software. Combining Lucent's products on the edge and core of the network creates a complete VoIP solution that provides STSI.net with end-to-end quality of service and the necessary capacity and performance for simultaneously transporting a diverse set of communications services.

"With an extensive network delivering multiple services and carrying millions of minutes per month, STSI.net is a great example of the success of the VoIP industry," said Chris Schoettle, vice president and general manager of VoIP Access Networks, Lucent Technologies' InterNetworking Systems. "The new MultiVoice software is designed to help our customers' networks grow in terms of the number of services supported while maintaining the maximum amount of reliability and network control."

Most VoIP service providers have their own network and interconnection agreements with other service providers to exchange VoIP traffic. As traffic on VoIP networks rapidly expands, these service providers are looking for ways to better manage the cost and administration of this traffic. The new MultiVoice software includes the ability to send calls over the least expensive "trunk," or the link connecting the VoIP gateway to the public telephone network or another service provider, giving MultiVoice customers the ability to configure their networks to better control the cost and flow of calls on their network.

The new release also adds programmable intelligence to MultiVoice so it can recognize and automatically authenticate and route a call or play specific announcements, such as a request for a personal identification number (PIN), in different languages based on either the number used to dial into the gateway or the phone number used to make the call. For example, MultiVoice can check a caller's telephone number and if the caller is already a subscriber of that service provider's long distance service, it automatically routes the call rather than asking for a PIN.

Lucent's MultiVoice VoIP software runs on the market-leading MAX TNT and MAX 6000 remote access concentrators. The MultiVoice products offer service providers standards-based VoIP gateways designed to support toll-quality VoIP and fax-over-IP service with transparent integration with the public telephone network. The MultiVoice Access Manager is a standards-based H.323 gatekeeper platform for managing call set-up, authentication and signaling between different VoIP gateways in a network.

According to the most recent market research report issued by Synergy Research Group, Lucent was the market share leader throughout 1999 in the service provider VoIP equipment market with 36 percent and 42 percent of the revenue and ports shipped, respectively. Lucent is also the No. 1 provider of wide area network solutions to service providers worldwide according to recent market research reports from Cahners In-Stat Group, Dell'Oro Group, Synergy Research Group and Vertical Systems Group.

STSI.net is a wholesale vendor of IP telephony, Internet access and e-commerce services. STSI.net provides dial-up Internet access in excess of 2,000 cities, with the ability to reach 65 percent of the US population. Phase two of its network expansion, scheduled for completion by the fourth quarter of 2000, will increase the domestic network footprint to 80 percent of the U.S. population. STSI.net has one of the largest private (not over the Internet) VoIP networks in the U.S. and is among the top 50 certified CLECs in the United States. For more information on STSI, visit its Web site at http://www.stsi.net.