General Bandwidth Demonstrates the Future of Local Telephony Service in Europe; General Bandwidth's G6 Voice Gateway Delivers Packetized Voice-over-DSL Network

Business Wire, Oct 30, 2000

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

PARIS & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2000

General Bandwidth, a carrier-class, voice-over-broadband (VoB) gateway manufacturer, will demonstrate the future of local telephony at Networld Interop in Paris Nov. 7-9.

The demonstration of voice-over-DSL (VoDSL) shows a packetized voice phone call being delivered across a broadband network through General Bandwidth's G6(TM) voice gateway. One of the first live demonstrations of VoDSL in Europe, General Bandwidth's demo will be running all week in booth L 88 at the exhibition.

European service providers are deploying broadband services at an increasing pace, expecting to reach more than three million customers with high-speed data services by the end of 2001. Voice-over-broadband allows European service providers to leverage their broadband infrastructure to deliver multiple lines of toll-quality, packetized voice services in addition to data over a single broadband connection. This dramatically improves their return on investment, alleviates copper exhaust, lowers the barriers to entering new markets and creates a platform for differentiated services.

General Bandwidth's demonstration of the G6 voice gateway at Networld Interop gives European service providers an opportunity to see a truly carrier-class implementation of VoDSL. Unlike the majority of voice-over-broadband solutions that have limited scalability, do not meet ETSI requirements and only support a single access platform (DSL, cable or wireless) or voice protocol (ATM, IP, frame relay or legacy PSTN TDM). General Bandwidth's VoBroadband(TM) approach supports highly-scalable, packetized voice services over all of the new, emerging cost-effective broadband technologies within one gateway architecture - the G6.

"The G6 is the only carrier-class, voice-over-broadband gateway designed specifically to meet ETSI requirements and provide European service providers with the broadest set of deployment options," said Sean Parham, vice president of product management for General Bandwidth, Inc. "Our demo at N I further shows our commitment to enabling European operators to deliver profitable voice-over-broadband services."

Networld Interop Demo

Simulating a service provider's point of presence, General Bandwidth is using its G6 voice gateway to provide voice services over a DSL network.

The DSL network features an Efficient Networks (Nasdaq:EFNT) integrated access device (IAD), with a telephone transmitting VoATM across a DSL access network through a Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO) DSLAM and into the General Bandwidth G6. The General Bandwidth G6 performs the protocol terminations, translates and routes the interconnect calls as well as calls to and from the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) via a V5.2 interface.

General Bandwidth VoDSL Demonstration at N I Paris in Booth L88.

About General Bandwidth, Inc.

General Bandwidth, Inc. is a voice-over-broadband (VoB) gateway manufacturer that enables toll-quality voice services to residential and business customers across emerging broadband access networks, such as digital subscriber line (DSL), cable and wireless. The company's VoBroadband(TM) approach provides multiple independent voice lines over a single broadband connection, allowing service providers to offer packetized voice services over the last mile that meet and exceed the quality and functionality of today's plain old telephone service (POTS). For more information visit www.generalbandwidth.com or contact 1.512.681.5400 or our London office at 44 7775 812 289.

Trademark notes: G6 and VoBroadband are trademarks of General Bandwidth, Inc.