TelStrat Announces Partnership With Minerva Networks to Provide IP Television Services to Local Service Providers

Business Wire, April 9, 2002

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

SUPERCOMM 2002

Booth 11509 Hall C3

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2002

Solution Targets the Growing Demand for Broadcast-Quality Video

Services over DSL

Today TelStrat, a developer and manufacturer of globally distributed voice and data carrier and enterprise solutions, announced a partnership with Minerva Networks, Inc. to provide a full range of Internet Protocol (IP) television services to local service providers.

Video services, including live television, near-video-on-demand (nVOD), video-on-demand (VOD), and personal video recording (PVR), will be provided over DSL via Minerva's IP Television headend through TelStrat's Inteleflex Multi-Service Intelligent Access Platform.

The Inteleflex Multi-Service Intelligent Access Platform (MIAP) delivers and manages narrowband and broadband voice, data and video services over any network architecture, including fiber, copper, and wireless.

The video services utilize the SONET OC-3 / OC-3c Uplink and Restorable Ring and Video Delivery over ADSL functionality, new features of TelStrat's Inteleflex product line that will be released at SUPERCOMM 2002 June 4 - 6 in Atlanta. TelStrat will offer live demonstrations of these features during SUPERCOMM at booth 11509 in Hall C3, where visitors will also have the opportunity to win $10,000.

Minerva Networks provides complete IP Television headend solutions, enabling the delivery of broadcast-quality television and video services over IP networks.

The central point of subscriber management, media aggregation and video distribution, an IP Television Headend consists of Minerva(R) iTVManager video services management software, Minerva VNP analog encoders and Minerva MediaGateway direct video broadcast (DVB) to IP demultiplexers.

Through Minerva's IP Television Headend combined with TelStrat's Inteleflex MIAP, network operators can provide a broad range of television services including live television, VOD, nVOD, interactive advertising and PVR. Minerva also offers a suite of professional services to facilitate the deployment of end-to-end video networking solutions.

"Minerva brings powerful IP Television solutions to TelStrat's networking technologies, providing the IP-based video distribution systems necessary to counter competitive pressure from regional cable and satellite providers," said Reed Majors, vice president of marketing and business development for Minerva. "The collaboration supplies an integrated platform to build a cost-effective video delivery infrastructure that is capable of scaling to meet future needs."

TelStrat is a leading provider of advanced products, such as Inteleflex, that extend and expand the reach and functionality of communication networks. Inteleflex offers greater bandwidth and broadband flexibility than any other product in its market and has been serving carrier networks for over 3 years. Inteleflex is "field-proven" and "future-ready" for access networks.

Already, 135 phone companies in 35 states are deploying Inteleflex.

"TelStrat is excited about joining forces with Minerva to help local service providers compete in the video services market. This solution offers these providers the ability to bundle voice and data with compelling revenue generating video services," said Dan Carter, senior vice president and chief technology officer for TelStrat. "The high bandwidth demands of services like video are exactly what the Inteleflex broadband loop carrier / access platform was designed to support from the earliest definition of its architecture. The future is now, and Inteleflex is ready."

About Minerva

Minerva Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of carrier-class solutions that enable the delivery of broadcast-quality television and video services over broadband IP networks. Our IP Television management software, encoders and media gateways are integrated into a complete IP Television solution for the delivery of video services over broadband IP networks.

Broadband network operators worldwide use Minerva Networks' products and services to deliver next-generation entertainment, communication and e-commerce applications. Minerva Networks is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and is available on the Internet at www.minervanetworks.com.

About Inteleflex

TelStrat's Multi-service Intelligent Access Platform Inteleflex provides access from electrical to optical with software driven network intelligence to a multitude of services from Voice to Data to Video over a choice of protocols.

Inteleflex allows the aggregation and integration of service offerings over a concentration of equipment and access facilities, which reduces network deployment costs and complexity.

Inteleflex provides Packet Loop Carrier (PLC), Digital Subscriber Loop Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), Digital Access Cross-connect System (DACS), Dial Up Data Routing, T1 Concentrator, ATM to the Edge, Voice over Data (VoDSL, VoATM, VoIP) Gateway, SONET Restorable Transport and Uplink and Video Delivery Platform all over one Multi-service Intelligent Access Platform.