CommPartners Certifies New Linksys IP Phone & IP PBX for Small Business VoIP Deployments; Next Generation Voice System from Cisco/Linksys Joins Growing List of Best in Class CPE Hardware Certified for Deployment on CommPartners' IP-based Network

Business Wire, Jan 5, 2006

LAS VEGAS -- CommPartners, an IP-based network operator and telephony services and solutions provider, today announced that it has certified the new SPA941 IP Phone and SPA9000 IP PBX from Linksys(R), a Division of Cisco Systems, Inc., the recognized leading provider of voice, wireless and networking hardware for the consumer, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small business markets. This equipment has been added to CommPartners' best-in-class solution for those small businesses that are seeking the benefits of Voice over IP (VoIP).

"Today's announcement underscores CommPartners commitment to offering best-in-class customer premise equipment as part of our broad solutions for our small business customers," said Dave Clark, president and CEO of CommPartners. "As additional small businesses turn to IP telephony for their voice systems, we are pleased to be able to offer them Linksys' SPA9000 and SPA941, which, when combined, is a complete voice system for small businesses with up to 16 users."

When combined with CommPartners' planned support for Business Trunking, Linksys' SPA9000 IP PBX lies at the heart of the telephony solution, delivering advanced, multi-line features commonly found in enterprise telephone networks. Out of the box, the SPA9000 supports up to four (4) users. Via a software license key upgrade, up to sixteen (16) users can be supported. With the Auto Attendant feature, small businesses with up to 16 users can customize their voice network to direct calls to the right person or department and program the system to allow on and off business hour greetings. A promotional message can be created to greet or provide information to callers placed on hold, or pipe in the music of choice. The system also allows users to park calls, fax over the Internet and use the intercom for paging. There are over one hundred telephony features built-in, making the SPA9000 is a robust solution for small businesses looking for an on-premise IP phone system.

The Linksys SPA941 IP Phone is a functionally powerful, easy-to-use business phone featuring comprehensive interoperability and secure mass deployment capability that is ideal for deployment in SOHO, enterprise and small to medium business service offerings which use CommPartners' IP Centrex/Hosted VoIP offering. It can be configured as a two- or four-line, full-featured SIP phone with a high resolution pixel based graphical display, speakerphone and headset port. Armed with an impressive set of features and hundreds of programmable parameters, the SPA941 addresses the requirements of business users, while also leveraging the advantages of CommPartners' IP-based network. Features like easy acceptance of station moves, presence and shared line appearances across localized or geographically separate locations are just some of the advantages of using Linksys' VoIP endpoints. When used with the SPA9000, the phones install in minutes, automatically configuring themselves with business features preset by CommPartners.

CommPartners maintains a formal certification program for qualifying CPE as certified on its IP-based network. The certification program includes lab testing, field-deployed testing, and overall feature/functionality testing. CommPartners is currently evaluating several additional CPE devices from leading technology vendors in its certification program.

Currently, CommPartners offers the broadest IP-based network coverage to deliver SMB and enterprise hosted VoIP services with over 5,000 rate centers in the domestic United States, including Hawaii and Alaska. CommPartners has applied for and expects to obtain Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) status in all 50 states by early in 2006, which will classify it as one of the sole largest networks of its type in the country. The company has architected its network for business-quality VoIP services, 911 emergency services capabilities and CALEA compliance -- issues that pose challenges to many VoIP service providers.

The CommPartners solution includes CommPartners Management System (CMS) proprietary OSS platform for automated provisioning, billing, user interface and back office support capabilities. Hosted features include simultaneous ring, voicemail-to-e-mail, feature activation via the web, and four-digit dialing between offices. CommPartners provides VoIP facilitation services such as Subscriber Endpoint Control, Connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network ("PSTN"), Long Distance services, and Subscriber Management. Service providers can take advantage of all or any of these VoIP facilitation services, depending upon their existing network investments and VoIP requirements.

About Linksys

Founded in 1988, Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), is the recognized global leader in Wireless, VoIP and Ethernet networking for consumer, SOHO and small business users. Linksys is dedicated to making networking easy and affordable for its customers, offering innovative, award-winning products that seamlessly integrate with a variety of devices and applications. Linksys provides award-winning product support to its customers. For more information, visit http://www.linksys.com.