Acme Packet Enhances Rural VoIP Services for Iowa Network Services

Business Wire, Feb 9, 2007

Net-Net Session Border Controllers Manage Access and Interconnect Borders for Iowa Network Services' IP Core Network

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Acme Packet[R] (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, today announced that the company has been selected by Iowa Network Services, Inc.(INS) as its session border control provider to support its hosted VoIP services. INS, which is owned by 127 rural Iowa Independent Telephone Companies, offers wholesale services to multiple local exchange carriers (LECs) in the state of Iowa. Deployed to support both access and interconnect applications, Acme Packet's Net-Net[R] session border controllers (SBCs) enable high-quality hosted IP Centrex business applications and IP PBX trunking along with the ability to securely connect to the broadband networks of INS' participating LECs.

Acme Packet's Net-Net SBCs provide key functionality for INS, which aims to provide its rural customers the same high levels of service afforded to their urban and suburban counterparts. The SBCs manage the traffic between multiple IP networks while providing a highly scalable architecture and flexible configuration, allowing the SBCs to grow in capacity and support new applications as INS expands. Acme Packet's SBCs afford INS with high levels of security, featuring access control lists, topology hiding and signaling rate limiting to prevent denial of service (DoS) attacks. By employing the Net-Net SBC's flexible call admission control policies, INS is able to ensure network availability and call quality for its customers. To maximize service reach, Acme Packet SBCs provide adaptive NAT traversal--allowing INS to deliver VoIP services to customers behind firewalls--and have proven interoperability with other VoIP equipment.

"Acme Packet Net-Net SBCs, with their carrier-class qualities and extensive interoperability with E911 service providers and VoIP equipment vendors, help round out the highly sophisticated VoIP services that we provide to Iowans in rural and metropolitan markets," said Robert Agnew, voice product manager from INS. "The Net-Net family allows us to take advantage of SIP-enabled equipment that provides integral security, interworking and load balancing features, maximizing our network capabilities, while at the same time delivering cutting-edge services to rural areas."

"By leveraging our security, service assurance and service reach features, INS has created a robust interactive IP communications suite, creating a compelling offering for Iowa businesses," said Seamus Hourihan, Acme Packet's vice president of marketing and product management. "With our Net-Net SBCs, INS is able to bring next-generation communication services to Iowa that customers want, helping INS to establish themselves and its LEC partners as service-centric technology leaders."

About Acme Packet

Acme Packet, the leader in session border control solutions, enables service providers to deliver trusted, first class interactive communications--voice, video and multimedia sessions--across IP network borders. Our Net-Net family has been selected by over 360 service providers in 75 countries to satisfy critical security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable and wireless networks. Our customers include 23 of the top 25, and 72 of the top 100 service providers in the world. These deployments support multiple applications--from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed-mobile convergence; multiple protocols--SIP, H.323, MGCP/NCS and H.248; and multiple border points--interconnect, access network and data center. For more information, contact us at 1 781.328.4400, or visit www.acmepacket.com.

About Iowa Network Services, Inc.

Iowa Network Services is privately owned by a group of 127 Independent Telephone Companies that serve 500,000 rural Iowans. Core network transport, broadcast video and Internet service via netINS are among the products offered by Iowa Network Services to telephone companies across the state of Iowa and to enterprise customers nationwide. For more information visit www.IowaNetworkServices.com and www.netINS.net.

Acme Packet Safe Harbor Statement

Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may relate, among other things, to our position in the session border control market, our expected financial and operating results, our ability to build and grow Acme Packet, the benefits of our product, and our ability to achieve our goals, plans and objectives. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These include, but are not limited to: difficulties in growing our customer base, difficulties leveraging market opportunities, difficulties providing solutions that meet the needs of customers, poor product sales, long sales cycles, difficulty developing new products, difficulty in relationships with vendors and partners, higher risk in international operations, difficulty managing rapid growth, and increased competition. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially form those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in such filings.