Veraz Networks, Verso Technologies and IP Unity Announce Significant Deployment at Cable and Wireless for Suite of Pre-paid IP Based Services

Business Wire, August 24, 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif.& ATLANTA -- Prepaid Services Solution based on Veraz's Softswitch/Media Gateway, Verso's I-Master Service and Revenue Assurance Platform in collaboration with IP Unity's Mereon Media and Application Servers to demonstrate open and robust architecture in first of its kind deployment in Latin America

Veraz Networks, the leading global provider of softswitch-based, toll-quality packet telephony solutions, together with Verso Technologies (NASDAQ: VRSO), a leading provider of packet-based solutions, and IP Unity, a leader in carrier-grade media servers, application servers and real-time multimedia applications for IP and TDM networks, today announce the deployment of an advanced prepaid services solution designed to deliver innovative services to residential and business customers.

The companies have completed an initial, significant deployment at Cable and Wireless for 600,000 pre-paid residential and calling card subscribers in Panama. The offering is a robust suite of pre-paid consumer and data services. The overall solution deployed at Cable and Wireless is a fully-integrated turnkey solution provided by Veraz Networks which includes the ControlSwitch softswitch and service delivery platform and I-Gate 4000 PRO media gateway as well as Verso's I-Master Service and Revenue Assurance Platform, IP Unity's Mereon(TM) 6000 Media Server, Mereon Applications Server and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Application.

Cable and Wireless's subscribers will now have available pre-paid local service and Internet access (ADSL) to homes and kiosks, reminder services, streaming audio information services, contest and voting applications, special promotional marketing campaigns and customer service renewals through an IVR solution. In addition to pre-paid fixed line and ADSL, this solution also carries all of Cable and Wireless's pre-paid calling card traffic. This is the first solution of its kind in Latin America.

Call Volumes for these services, including basic pre-paid traffic, have already peaked in excess of 60,000 BHCA (busy hour call attempts) and continue to increase, reflecting the robustness and scalability of the solution. In the highly competitive Latin American market where subscribers have flocked to pre-paid cellular service because of the availability of pay-as-you-go pricing plans, through this new offering, Cable and Wireless Panama has now begun to reverse an industry-wide wireline user migration to mobile telephony and grown its subscriber usage volume through flexible pricing and new pre-paid service innovation.

"Although the solution has just been deployed, Cable and Wireless has increased its voice and data traffic by 20%-30%," said a Roberto Mendoza, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs, Cable and Wireless. "We believe that this solution will give Cable and Wireless a distinct advantage in the Latin American marketplace," said Mendoza.

"Cable and Wireless is one of the first incumbents in Latin America to recognize the importance of offering its customers value-added services in addition to traditional telephony. This is made possible by the I-Master revenue assurance platform," said Allan Draa, vice president of applications sales, Verso Technologies. "In a commoditizing environment, where there is high attrition and intense price pressure, Cable and Wireless realizes that in order to be competitive, you need revenue producing applications that create customer loyalty to both a prepaid and postpaid market," continued Draa. "Verso is excited about this relationship and its future," said Draa.

"We are pleased to be part of this rapidly-growing deployment," emphasized Arun Sobti, IP Unity Chairman and CEO. "Cable and Wireless has tapped the innovative power of IP Unity's interactive voice response application to deliver a host of valued information services for its subscribers, and has laid the groundwork for prepaid messaging and conferencing services as the next waves of innovation."

"This is another fantastic example of the flexibility of the Veraz ControlSwitch and how service providers can leverage the platform's extensibility to introduce converged services into their networks," said Carlos Linares, vice president of sales, CALA, Veraz Networks. "We have combined on-demand, innovative features and the preferred payment option of daily, weekly or block-of-minutes prepaid services to help carriers increase customer loyalty and generate new revenues. This is critical for customer retention and revenue assurance."

About Verso Technologies

Verso is a leading provider of next generation communication applications for carriers, service providers and enterprises that need to lower their communication infrastructure costs while enhancing service capabilities to remain competitive. With an extensive portfolio that extends from the "core-to-the-edge" of a network, Verso solutions and applications enable its customers to leverage legacy technology investments while migrating to converged voice and data networks.