Acterna's NetComplete Service Assurance Now Equips Service Providers with the Ability to Deploy Video over IP Networks/IPTV Reliably and Efficiently

Business Wire, June 2, 2005

GERMANTOWN, Md. -- Comprehensive Test and Management Support Monitors, Isolates Faults and Troubleshoots Issues Associated with Carrying Video Streams over IP Networks

Acterna today announced its NetComplete(TM) Service Assurance solution for IPTV that enables communications service providers to meet and exceed their customers' expectations of receiving high-quality and reliable IPTV services, improving network efficiency and reducing customer churn. Deploying IPTV, which must meet the high quality expectations consumers have for video services, requires sophisticated service assurance tools and procedures, such as those found in NetComplete, to quickly identify and prevent sources of degradation.

Acterna, the leader in test and management solutions for consumer and business broadband communications, is introducing its NetComplete IPTV Service Assurance solution, as well as solutions for VoIP and Metro Ethernet, at SuperComm 2005, booth #43021, June 7-9.

"This is a revolutionary time for providers racing to address the complex challenges involved in deploying IPTV with uncompromising quality and reliability to meet customers' high expectations," said Roger Lingle, vice president of marketing for Acterna's Service Assurance Solutions division. "Acterna's NetComplete IPTV service assurance portfolio delivers on-demand testing and performance monitoring with end-to-end coverage. It also allows providers to pursue the deployment of IPTV services with the proactive quality management and troubleshooting needed to address impairment issues that could affect the IP video viewing experience."

Performing on-demand testing and troubleshooting of video signal performance, ensuring the quality of content at critical hand-off points, and verifying video and transport streams, Acterna's comprehensive approach to proactively monitoring IPTV via NetComplete allows providers to perform several important test and management functions that assure the content and quality of TV signals carried over the IP network. For example, it provides end-to-end monitoring, test and troubleshooting from the video head end, through the delivery of the TV signal, to the end user.

For top-flight IPTV service performance, the signals entering the network must be accurate and of very pure quality. NetComplete helps ensure this quality by conducting video head end/hub office monitoring of the video sources, and identifying poor quality content prior to the signal entering the IP network. Once the signal enters the service provider's IP network, NetComplete also provides comprehensive video over IP transport monitoring to proactively identify degradation sources that could compromise the TV signal being delivered to the end user. Finally, NetComplete proactively identifies service delivery issues by actively emulating the user and making channel change requests.

NetComplete's IPTV capabilities are a part of Acterna's Service Assurance Solutions (SAS) division, which provides "triple-play" next generation network operators with a robust modular portfolio of independent and interoperable solutions to enable end-to-end triple-play service management across their converged broadband IP infrastructure.

About Acterna's NetComplete

NetComplete is the core component of Acterna's Service Assurance Solutions that delivers end-to-end applications for service turn-up verification, fault isolation and troubleshooting, performance monitoring and capacity planning targeted for the service provider environment. Service providers can maximize revenue while lowering costs by removing operational inefficiencies within and between these areas. Acterna's QT-600 is a new NetComplete Distributed Ethernet Testhead that supports providers delivering triple play (voice, video and data) services. In combination with NetComplete's Test OSS, called NetAnalyst NGT, service providers can use the QT-600 to verify turn-up of services without coordinated dispatches to multiple remote sites. NetAnalyst Test Management software provides operators with an open platform (Web and XML based), intelligent test system that supports multi-vendor, multi-protocol, and multi-architecture networks.

About Acterna

Acterna is the world's largest provider of communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators. A trusted communications test partner for more than eight decades, Acterna offers an unmatched portfolio of award-winning instruments, systems, software, and services that help its customers reduce network costs while improving performance and reliability. Headquartered in Germantown, Md. -- with European and Asia-Pacific operations based in Eningen, Germany, and Hong Kong -- Acterna serves nearly every major communications service provider and equipment manufacturer around the world through a skilled sales and support organization in 31 countries.

All Acterna company or product names mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of Acterna Inc. or one of its subsidiary companies.