I've known about this announcement for a week or two, but couldn't really talk about it until this week. BT is one of the most forward-thinking services providers on the planet. Siemens is one of the real thought leaders in technology advancement. I believe this partnering will deliver some truly new and advanced service delivery offerings to their combined customers.

BT and Siemens to Deliver One-Stop Converged Communications Solution

Worldwide Relationship Brings Enterprises Centralized, Converged IP Communications

LONDON, UK and BOCA RATON, Fla. -- May 6, 2008 -- BT, one of the world's leading providers of networked IT services, and Siemens Enterprise Communications, one of the world's leading suppliers of Open Communications software and services for enterprises, have entered into a global sales agreement to offer a converged communications solution for large multinational enterprises. The solution aims at helping those enterprises reduce costs, remove complexity and risk, improve collaboration and enhance business processes. It achieves that by leveraging existing investments in currently separate voice and data infrastructures and offering a compelling transition path to a centrally managed IP-based communications platform.

The BT and Siemens converged communications solution enables enterprises to consolidate and converge their voice and data communications at their own pace, one site at a time if so required. They are able to migrate from an existing multi-technology environment to a centrally managed converged communications platform upon deployment. The solution offers a single service level agreement as well as a flexible pricing model with a single point of contact for end-to-end managed services.

This solution combines Siemens OpenScape* suite of communications software applications and OpenScale* services with BT's world class MPLS network.

The BT-Siemens relationship grew out of their shared experiences while handling several mutual engagements with major customers. This proven approach - deployed to thousands of users in industries ranging from finance to manufacturing - can help large enterprise CIOs solve one of the toughest IT challenges they face today.

"The dilemma for CIOs is that the demands of maintaining their existing IT infrastructures command so much of their budgets that little is left for true innovation," said Wu Zhou, Senior Analyst, IDC. "So while many if not most CIOs now recognize the clear advantages of IP-based converged communications, they cannot see how to get there without a lot of cost and complexity that can adversely impact the business."

The complementary portfolios of BT and Siemens Enterprise Communications are ideally suited to deliver a complete range of solutions and services including voice, data, telephony, mobility and collaboration applications.

"Through mergers and acquisitions, many of our customers have accumulated complex, usually multi-vendor voice and data infrastructures," said Chris Ainslie, vice president, systems integrators and channel partners, BT. "Our agreement with Siemens offers them a way to leverage their significant legacy investments while opening doors for greater collaboration, and better execution."

"This relationship provides a vehicle for large national and multi-national corporations as well as for large public organizations to implement sophisticated converged solutions globally," said Gerhard Otterbach, Chief Market Operations Officer (CMO) and Member of the Board at Siemens Enterprise Communications "It removes the complexity of separate vendor relationships in each country to manage the billing, customer service and technology integration challenges associated with a large-scale deployment while, at the same time, maintaining the value of their existing investment."

About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services; local, national and international telecommunications services; higher-value broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2007, BT Group plc's revenue was £20,223 million with profit before taxation of £2,484 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $107.4 billion in 2006. Founded 160 years ago, the company is a leader in the areas of Medical, Power, Automation and Control, Transportation, Information and Communications, Lighting, Building Technologies, Water Technologies and Services and Home Appliances. With its U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City, Siemens in the USA has sales of $21.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 480,000 people in 190 countries. For more information on Siemens in the United States: www.usa.siemens.com.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is one of the world's leading suppliers of Unified Communications technologies. The company's unique Open Communications approach to providing software, solutions and services for enterprises of all sizes enables business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure - with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG with global headquarters in Munich.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG, visit: http://www.siemens.com/open

*The OpenScape Unified Communication (UC) suite of applications operate in multi-vendor environments and integrate with complementary offerings from a variety of industry players. The OpenScale professional and managed services portfolio provides a global service infrastructure and delivers software based, UC services.

Note: OpenScale is a trademark, and Siemens, OpenScape, and HiPath are registered trademarks of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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Alcatel-Lucent Certifies OmniPCX Enterprise Application with Mediatrix Analog Gateways

Sherbrooke, QUEBEC, May 7, 2008 - Mediatrix Telecom, the leader in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) access devices, gateways and branch connectivity, today announced that the Mediatrix 4100 and 2102 VoIP gateways have passed Alcatel-Lucent's interoperability tests and have received certification with Alcatel-Lucent's OmniPCX Enterprise communications platform.

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise is an integrated, interactive communications solution for medium-sized businesses and large corporations. The solution combines traditional telephone functions with support for Internet-based telephony and multimedia communication.

"Mediatrix now provides a certified solution for companies deploying Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise communication platforms," explained Andres Torres, PLM Manager for Mediatrix Telecom. "Customers will find in Mediatrix Analog Gateways the perfect match for performance, interoperability and security requirements in a VoIP solution."

Mediatrix Analog Products

• Mediatrix 2102: 2 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4104: 4 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4108: 8 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4116: 16 analog FXS ports
• Mediatrix 4124: 24 analog FXS ports

The Mediatrix 4100 series provides a highly scalable and cost-effective analog solution for the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise platform. It can be deployed in remote offices to provide analog connectivity for analog phones, faxes, and legacy key systems.

SOHO users can also make use of the Mediatrix 2102. It seamlessly integrates into the customer's existing home network, providing up to two analog lines for phone and fax machines linked to the headquarters' OXE.

About Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX
The Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise is an integrated, interactive communications solution for medium-sized businesses and large corporations. The solution combines traditional telephone functions with support for Internet-based telephony and multimedia communication.

The OmniPCX Enterprise provides a suite of unified communication applications, including a Web softphone, along with unified messaging and personal assistant applications. Based on a single software platform, the OmniPCX Enterprise is compatible with multiple operating systems, provides powerful communications servers and features an independent infrastructure.

About Mediatrix Telecom
Mediatrix develops and markets advanced VoIP access devices, gateways, routers and value-added software enhancements for the enterprise, SOHO, and residential markets. Its products provide an ideal migration path for end users wishing to protect their current CPE investment (analog/digital phones, fax machines, PBX and Key Systems) while migrating to a converged IP network. Mediatrix products and solutions are widely interoperable and have received commercial endorsement from some of the world's leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment as well as from large telecommunication carriers. Mediatrix is a wholly owned Division of Media5 Corporation, a high technology company based in the Montreal area, in Canada. Media5 Corporation also owns M5T, a software provider focused on delivering the latest in SIP software technologies and security solutions to companies developing applications for real-time multimedia communications over IP. Mediatrix has corporate offices in the Sherbrooke area, in Canada and regional offices in the United States and Europe. For more information, please visit www.mediatrix.com.

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I got the press release below about Inova Solutions offering yesterday afternoon. How colleges and universities (really any campus residence environment) alerts its community is an important aspect of public safety that's easily overlooked. It really highlights some key issues surrounding public safety and emergency notification solutions.

As part of a webinar yesterday, I was also involved in another view on notification and alerts, reaching far more broadly than public safety. When we think about notifications and alerts there are a number of types of notifications that are crying out for a better solution than email. Email isn't timely and doesn't match the urgency of the need to information sharing.

• Urgent weather alerts (storm, fire, evacuation)
• Traffic alerting (accidents and congestion)
  
• Travel delays (airport closure, flight problems)
• Service problems
• Networks
• Cable TV
• Telephone
• Utilities
• Stock alerts
• Business news

TRAGEDIES & PUBLIC SAFETY ISSUES DRIVE LEGISLATION, NEED FOR EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AND PUBLIC AREAS

DEMAND GROWS FOR INOVA SOLUTIONS' FLEXIBLE DISPLAYS

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, April 29, 2008 -- As tragedies and public safety issues become more apparent, so has legislation to implement mass notification systems on campuses and public areas. For example, the state of Virginia recently passed legislation requiring colleges and universities to establish "comprehensive, prompt and reliable" first-warning and notification plans by January 1, 2009. While other states are considering similar legislation, many campuses are proactively developing emergency mass notification systems to protect their staff and student populations. The process can be complex.

"Comprehensive notification systems rely on multiple technologies to deliver time-sensitive critical information. Because campuses and public spaces need to make different decisions based on their size, location and layout, warning and notification systems will vary," explained Gerry Gorman, Vice President at Inova Solutions, a leading provider of real-time visual displays. "All of these systems need to include a combination of visible and audible messaging to address the specific needs of students and staff in various locations."

Considerations When Choosing Emergency Mass Notification Systems
Inova Solutions recommends that campuses make the following considerations when developing a mass notification system:

• Use multiple technologies to deliver emergency messages, such as SMS/Email, Public Address and Visual Messaging. (Students often do not read text/email messages in real time. Plus, they may be required to turn off cell phones in class, and large buildings often reduce cell phone coverage.)
• Coordinate public address and textual messaging systems for optimal reach, especially for large congregation spaces like student unions, cafeterias and lecture halls to: a) minimize the impact of noise often accompanying a crisis and b) support the disabled population as required under the ADA.
• For visual displays, LED is better than LCD screens to deliver crisp clear messages to large areas.
• LEDs are brighter and can be read easily at +100 feet, even through smoke and dust. (LCDs have up to 20-foot viewing range.)
• LED displays are more durable, with an expected life of 10 years, three time longer than LCDs.
• LED displays consume far less power that LCDs and ethernet-powered displays can use redundant network power to survive outages.

The Benefits of Ethernet-Powered Displays
Inova Solutions has developed the first Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) displays that are highly flexible, networked and centrally managed, and have impressive viewing capacity. The demand for Inova's full line of networked displays and clocks, OnTrackTM and OnTimeTM, has increased significantly in the past year.

PoE devices are easy to install and maintain, and are extremely energy efficient. In fact, PoE-powered displays and clocks can save up to 75% in energy costs compared to AC-powered displays, without sacrificing brightness. The flexibility factor is huge: because there is no need for an AC outlet, the devices can be placed almost anywhere.

"Organizations that need to communicate quickly with dispersed communities in public access areas such as college campuses, K-12 schools, hospitals, mass transit facilities, utility companies, and more, are looking for affordable solutions to keep people safe," said Gorman. "PoE devices are an economical, flexible and environmentally friendly source of power that enables emergency messaging to be managed centrally and remotely."

About Inova Solutions
Founded in 1984, Inova Solutions is a global provider of real-time visual communications that help inbound and outbound call centers, public transit systems, schools, manufacturers and others instantly communicate vital information. Keywords include: call center reporting, metrics, statistics, dashboard, wallboard, reader board, digital signage. For details, visit www.inovasolutions.com.
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My good friend Alec Saunders posted about AOL's latest announcement this morning.

AOL announces AOL OpenVoice API. CAVEAT DEVELOPER.

AOL announced Tuesday that it has opened the API to AIM Call Out, a move designed to let programmers more easily build products that tap into AIM for making calls over the net. The API is freely available, and applications built with it can let people call using AOL's network to bypass the ordinary telephony infrastructure.
[Read Alec's full post]

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Here's an interesting story about a new deployment of WiFi in a 15th century facility. I'd love to read a case study and hear what they went through to put this solution together in more detail.

Michelin Starred WLAN For Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir

Extricom's Interference-Free(tm) Wireless LAN System selected for high-end guest services

London, UK - April 28, 2008 - Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, Raymond Blanc's 2 Star Michelin hotel and restaurant and home to the Raymond Blanc Cookery School, has completed the deployment of an Extricom Wireless LAN (WLAN) system, designed to deliver wireless mobility services to guests and business delegates throughout Le Manoir's 15th century buildings and gardens. Implemented by systems integrator G4 Networks, Extricom's WLAN system will also support the future migration of Le Manoir's back-office applications, including voice-over-WLAN (VoWLAN), on to the wireless network.

Meeting the demands of Le Manoir's clientele was a key driver behind the deployment of the WLAN solution. Gurval Durand, deputy general manager, explains, "Many of our guests are high level business executives. The services we deliver, including free wireless access, are designed to meet their high expectations and to make their stay as comfortable as possible. Every service or product at Le Manoir has to be top-of-the-range."

"Extricom's WLAN technology provides blanket wireless coverage throughout Le Manoir's grounds, allowing guests to connect and continue working wherever they choose to relax, be it in the gardens, lounge, or in the privacy of their own Suite. The seamless quality of Extricom's Channel Blanket(tm) architecture means guests can even roam between all three, without disruption to their wireless session."

Durand adds, "Furthermore, it also gives us the scope to explore new wireless applications as we seek to enhance our own communications strategy. For example, we're currently assessing the deployment of a VoWLAN phone system that would deliver greater mobility to our employees. Extricom and G4 Networks have given us the longevity and capabilities to evolve as we strive to deliver a first-class guest experience."

Besides meeting expectations for superior performance, systems integrator G4 Networks needed to deliver a wireless network that would neither detract from the aesthetics of the building nor disrupt the listed status of Le Manoir's landmark buildings. To do so, G4 Networks selected the Extricom EXRP-20 Dual-Radio UltraThin(tm) Access Points and mounted them all on the outside perimeter of the buildings, pointing inwards to ensure wireless connectivity within the building.

Dave Allen, director of G4 Networks, comments, "At Le Manoir, it's the details that make the guest experience, and they had no lesser expectations for their wireless LAN. WLAN is a key criterion when choosing hotel accommodation, but the real value-add is its
pervasiveness, its simplicity, and the performance quality."

"Like Le Manoir, Extricom's technology is all in the experience. Its mobility makes it ideal for enterprises that are looking for a far higher quality of service and, as wireless becomes the de facto standard for voice and data applications, its mobility capabilities offer a real differentiator."

Extricom's patented and award-winning Interference-Free(tm) WLAN System represents the next generation of enterprise Wi-Fi, with a fundamental shift in architecture from "cell-planning" to a Channel Blanket(tm) topology. The technology eliminates the co-channel interference that plagues traditional WLAN systems, to deliver seamless and zero-latency mobility, robust, "wire-like" client connections, greatly increased capacity, and the ability to design for a guaranteed and predictable level of service for all users. All this, without the iterative and costly RF cell-planning of traditional solutions. The result is a high-performance yet simple solution for powering the data, voice (VoWLAN), and video applications requested by organizations.

About Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, www.manoir.com

About G4 Networks, www.g4.co.uk

About Extricom
Extricom is the premier provider of enterprise-class infrastructure solutions for converged voice, data, video and RFID. Its innovative Interference-Free(tm) architecture offers a completely different experience for the system owner and user: lower total cost of ownership; significantly greater security, bandwidth and coverage than traditional WLANs; seamless mobility with no AP-to-AP handoffs; elimination of RF cell planning and co-channel interference; and performance guarantee for both connection rate and bandwidth. Founded in 2002, Extricom is privately held, with strategic investors that include Motorola.

For General Inquiries: www.extricom.com. EMEA Media/Analysts: Charlotte Sandy, Cohesive Communications, +44 1291 626200, extricom@cohesive.uk.com.

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I've been watching Agito Networks closely the past few months. Today at Interop in Las Vegas they announced some new, innovative business-class enterprise fixed mobile convergence (eFMC) functionality in the latest version of their RoamAnywhere Mobility Router.

With Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router enterprises have a stateful high-availability eFMC architecture available to them, which ensures high-performance, business-class resiliency and availability for mobile voice. Continuing to enhance users' voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) experience, RoamAnywhere also natively integrates with Cisco Systems' Unified Wireless Network family. Another industry first, RoamAnywhere supports identity-based mobility with enhanced native integration with Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP.

AGITO NETWORKS INTRODUCES NEW BUSINESS-CLASS FEATURES TO ENTERPRISE FIXED MOBILE CONVERGENCE MARKETPLACE
RoamAnywhere's Industry-Leading Stateful High Availability, Native Integration with Cisco Unified Wireless Network Family and Active Directory/LDAP Further Address Enterprises' Mobility Needs

INTEROP LAS VEGAS 2008, Las Vegas, Nev. - April 28, 2008 - Agito Networks, Inc.Ô, the company pioneering new technology in enterprise mobility, today from Interop Las Vegas 2008 announced new, innovative business-class enterprise fixed mobile convergence (eFMC) functionality in the latest version of its award-winning RoamAnywhereÔ Mobility Router (http://www.agitonetworks.com/products).

RoamAnywhere will be demonstrated in Agito Networks' booth No. 2266 this week at Interop Las Vegas 2008, and in the Agito Networks suite in the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

With Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, for the first time enterprises have a stateful high-availability eFMC architecture available to them, which ensures high-performance, business-class resiliency and availability for mobile voice. Continuing to enhance users' voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) experience, RoamAnywhere natively integrates with Cisco Systems' Unified Wireless Network family. Another industry first, RoamAnywhere supports identity-based mobility with enhanced native integration with Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP.

Voice is a mission critical enterprise service, and Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router delivers the richest enterprise-class mobile voice features found in an eFMC product today.

"Here at Anthony Marano, we need in-building wireless coverage, seamless handover to cellular, and some specific PBX functions delivered to the multiple types of handsets we use, all due to our large facility which has very poor cellular coverage," said Christopher Nowak, CTO of the Anthony Marano Company. "Agito has native integration into our PBX and a very elegant technique to ensure perfect hand over, by providing the handset with enterprise site knowledge of where handoffs need to occur. We see a solution like this giving us the improved voice mobility we need to enhance the responsiveness and productivity of our key sales, purchasing and management staff who are dependent on synchronous communications."

RoamAnywhere is the industry's first complete eFMC solution, combining both the "Network Layer" and the "Application Layer" approaches to FMC to increase mobile worker productivity and reduce cellular expenses. By integrating into enterprises' existing PBXes without tampering with the desk phone like other solutions require, Agito Networks provides Application-Layer FMC features such as a single enterprise phone number and voicemail for a user's desk phone and mobile phone, and key enterprise desk phone features extended to users' mobile phones.

At the Network Layer, RoamAnywhere delivers the industry's fastest, sub-100ms automatic location-aware handover between WiFi and cellular networks. Fast, automatic handover enables enterprises to provide their mobile workers low-cost in-building coverage, with drastically reduced cellular expenses and no requirement for cellular data plans. Administrators have greater visibility and control into mobile usage with granular identity-based reporting and CDRs, and mobile policies that adapt to users' locations, including Agito's patent-pending battery savings policies. Unlike other eFMC solutions, RoamAnywhere is an enterprise-ready appliance built for deployments of all sizes, scaling from 10 to 1000 simultaneous users.

"Customers have validated that Agito Network's location-aware technology has finally delivered on the promise of eFMC," said Pejman Roshan, Agito Networks vice president of marketing and a company founder. "Quickly responding to customer demand, the addition of these new enterprise-class features gives enterprises the confidence to fully mobilize their workforce."

RoamAnywhere's new High Availability functionality is delivered in a two-unit redundancy configuration. With other eFMC solutions, an outage will drop all mobile calls. Agito already uniquely protects enterprises' critical business voice applications with its hybrid, non-blocking architecture that follows the industry best-practice of separating control traffic from data/voice traffic. Now, multiple RoamAnywhere appliances in High Availability mode provide non-stop voice availability, with stateful failover across the RoamAnywhere Mobility Routers. Agito's High Availability does not require intervention from users or administrators and is transparent to mobile users in calls.

Agito's location-aware technology seamlessly integrates with Cisco's Radio Resource Management functionality available in Cisco's Unified Wireless Network family. Cisco's Radio Resource Management dynamically optimizes WiFi RF settings to provide the best possible WiFi coverage and capacity. Legacy, static, signal-strength-based eFMC solutions are vulnerable to these dynamic WiFi channel and power changes, significantly degrading voice quality. The RoamAnywhere Mobility Router works hand-in-hand with the Cisco WiFi infrastructure, ensuring a business-class voice experience for mobile users.

Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router also supports native integration into Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP. Native integration enables enterprises to leverage centralized user and group management. RoamAnywhere takes advantage of centralized user/group management for zero-touch client provisioning, deployment, and administration, as well as for mobile access to corporate directories. RoamAnywhere's suite of integrated identity features benefits enterprise users with a standard identity profile for mobile voice and data access, and benefits enterprise IT staff by easily extending their centralized identity system to their mobility infrastructure for access management and monitoring.

The award-winning RoamAnywhere is the industry's first and only business mobile convergence platform that uses RF-based, location-aware technologies to reliably mobilize and enable voice over 802.11 wireless LANs (VoWLAN) and data applications, while remaining agnostic to enterprise customers' choices of mobile carriers and equipment vendors. It uniquely fuses 802.11 wireless LANs (WLANs), enterprise IP telephony, and the carrier cellular network, improving mobile worker accessibility and responsiveness to increase mobile worker productivity. Agito's innovative, patent-pending location-aware technology allows enterprises to mobilize voice by taking full advantage of their 802.11 WLAN deployments as a low-cost alternative to cellular networks for in-building enterprise mobility.

RoamAnywhere's patent-pending, RF-based location aware technology ensures that in-building calls stay on the enterprise WLAN (using VoWLAN), to reduce cellular expenses and eliminate dropped or poor quality calls. Agito's patent pending sub-second, automatic handover of calls between WiFi and cellular is transparent to users. Instead of relying primarily on signal strength to determine routing between WLAN and cellular networks like prior-generation products, RoamAnywhere takes into account a variety of important networking metrics. These include network cost, load, reliability, delay, battery life, call or session quality and location.

Pricing and Availability
North American pricing for the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router starts at approximately $10,000 for the 2000 Series, which scales to support 100 simultaneous users. Pricing starts at $28,000 for the 4000 Series, which scales to support 1,000 simultaneous users. Functionality announced today will be available in Agito Networks' new release later this quarter.

About Agito Networks
Agito Networks is the award-winning technology leader in enterprise mobility. Its product, the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, is an innovative enterprise fixed mobile convergence (eFMC) platform enabling enterprises to extend voice and Unified Communications to cell phones. RoamAnywhere is the first and only network appliance that fuses enterprise wireless LANs, carrier cellular networks, IP telephony and location technology to mobilize voice and data applications, while remaining agnostic to customers' choices of carrier and equipment vendors. Agito Networks enables low-cost in-building voice coverage, reduced cellular costs, improved enterprise visibility and control over cellular usage, and better accessibility and responsiveness for mobile workers. VON Magazine named Agito Networks a Top Innovator Award winner, while RoamAnywhere has received numerous industry awards, including earning a CTIA Emerging Technology Award and receiving Product of the Year honors from Unified Communications magazine and Internet Telephony magazine. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company is venture backed, led by Battery Ventures. Go to http://www.agitonetworks.com for more information.
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Agito Networks and RoamAnywhere are trademarks of Agito Networks, Inc.

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Here's a story I've elected to overlook until now.

SightSpeed, a company I really like, is launching SightSpeed Light on MySpace. I've been encouraging my friends at SightSpeed to shift more toward business and away from the consumer roots they grew out of. They've been making moves to business solutions, but this release seems completely counter to that and ill advised.

While MySpace is a large network, popular with the millenial set to be sure, is releasing a free service on MySpace a viable plan for profitable business for a company like SightSpeed. If this is a proof of concept release, to test out SightSpeeds viability and potential in the social media world, again, why MySpace> The business dollars for the future certainly aren't there. Why not Facebook where college and business people are found more and more these days? A free proof of concept on Facebook makes sense. MySpace just doesn't.

I got email this morning from my friend, SightSpeed CEO, Peter Csathy that indicates this is the first of a series of announcements. I'll be watching for the rest. And I'll be hoping for news that strengthens SightSpeed's offerings and potential. This one is, for me, unfortunate and a step off the right track.

SIGHTSPEED LIGHT TO LAUNCH ON MYSPACE
SightSpeed Brings V-Mail and V-Chat Widget to the World's Largest Social Network

BERKELEY, Calif.-April 22, 2008--SightSpeed Inc., the leading provider of Internet video communications, today announced it has launched SightSpeed Light on MySpace (www.myspace.com/359330835), the world's most popular social network. SightSpeed becomes the first company to offer integrated video mail, public video posting and free video chat for members of MySpace in a free, easy-to-use, no-download app called SightSpeed Light. Empowered by MySpace's newly announced Developer Platform (http://developer.myspace.com), SightSpeed was able to easily build, test and ultimately deploy SightSpeed Light.

SightSpeed Light makes video conversations with MySpace friends livelier, whether they're real-time, face-to-face chats or threaded posts created by friends recording and posting video messages.

SightSpeed Light captures and creates video messages as posts, creating extended video conversations that are face-to-face, but not necessarily in real time. These threaded conversations start with someone creating and posting a SightSpeed video of themselves about any topic. From there, anyone else in that person's MySpace friends group can respond and add his or her thoughts. SightSpeed Light organizes the thread automatically, thus creating a video conversation, all without leaving MySpace.

MySpace first introduced its Developer Platform site on February 5, 2008, beginning a one-month application development period allowing companies, including SightSpeed, time to build and test their applications in a secure environment before going live to the MySpace community.

On March 13, 2008, MySpace launched the public beta of the Application Gallery (http://apps.myspace.com), enabling broader testing of approved applications by allowing public installation. MySpace members can now discover and add new applications from a variety of categories, including SightSpeed Light, to both their home and profile pages.

"Bringing SightSpeed Light to MySpace provides users with communications functionality currently not available in any other form on MySpace," said SightSpeed VP, Marketing, Eric Quanstrom. "SightSpeed Light allows MySpace users--especially those Gen Y-ers who grew up texting--to use video just as easily as they use text. And, all without leaving the familiarity of MySpace."

As with all MySpace Developer Platform applications, SightSpeed Light will be able to safely access publically available profile information including a user's friend list, interests, photos & albums, video, as well as status & mood. SightSpeed Light will have real estate in five places within MySpace including:

• A MySpace application profile (users can "friend" the apps)
• Access to embed applications on the user homepage (inward facing--for you to see)
• Access to embed applications on profiles (outward facing widget--for friends to see)
• An application gallery listing
• A canvas page

"SightSpeed Light is a great example of the way we intended developers to use the MySpace Developer Platform to create innovative and useful tools for our users," said Kyle Brinkman, vice president and general manager, MySpace Developer Platform. "Our end goal is to enrich our users' experience through unique and engaging applications, like SightSpeed Light, and we look forward to watching the MySpace Developer Platform continue to evolve."

For more information about the MySpace Developer Platform, please visit http://developer.myspace.com.

SightSpeed Light for MySpace can be accessed here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=359330835.


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About SightSpeed
SightSpeed Inc. is the award-winning provider of Internet video communications for both the business user and consumer. The company offers the broadest portfolio of industry-leading Internet video communications services, including SightSpeed Light, SightSpeed Free and SightSpeed PLUS, the most widely praised consumer-focused video chat services, which turn a PC or Mac into an easy-to-use video phone to communicate with friends and family around the world; and SightSpeed Business, the world's first high-quality, cost-effective and hardware-free videoconferencing service for all businesses (including SMBs). SightSpeed's services are SIP-based and standards-compliant. The company's revolutionary human perception-based technology is patented and based on more than ten years of research and development originating out of Cornell University.

Founded in 2001 and based in Berkeley, Calif., SightSpeed is a privately held company funded by The Roda Group, best known for launching Ask Jeeves and PolyServe. For more information about SightSpeed, visit www.sightspeed.com.

About MySpace
MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the first ranked web domain in terms of page views (*), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to providing the highest quality member experience. MySpace will continue to innovate with new features that allow its members to express their creativity and share their lives, both online and off. MySpace's international network includes localized community sites in the United States, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Latin America, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Fox Interactive Media is a division of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) (NYSE:NWS.A) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV).

(*) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, December 2007. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.

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While this doesn't apply to unified communications in any way, many readers here are also personal friends, or may become friends as we cross paths at industry conferences and such. Since sharing our personal lives with blog readers is something I feel is an important part of all we do, I thought I'd share this here because I know there are many readers who follow our work and life together.

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There are lots of acquisition talks in the news lately. Some make great sense and some just befuddle me. Here's one that makes great sense for both companies involved. Today, Sonus announced its acquisition of Atreus Systems, a Canadian-based company that delivers IP voice and advanced IP service provisioning software to consumer business and wholesale customers. Atreus Systems has been a Sonus partner for the last five years and by taking their proven technology and services under the Sonus umbrella, Sonus enhances its end-to-end solution to offer its customers the integration necessary to reach the value of their entire IP-solution.

The acquisition further strengthens Sonus' position as a trusted partner to the world's largest carriers, enabling the company to leverage its expertise to deliver enhanced customer services to the broadband industry. The combination of technology and services allows Sonus to best prepare for 4G, WiMAX and LTE as it will ease migration of carriers services to next generation networks. This one is a smart move!

SONUS NETWORKS EXPANDS ACCESS SERVICES PORTFOLIO WITH ACQUISITION OF ATREUS SYSTEMS

Acquisition Extends Company's Growing IP Services and Solutions with New Provisioning Services

Westford, MA., April 21, 2008 - Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in IP communications infrastructure, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Atreus Systems, a supplier of IP voice and advanced IP service provisioning software. Atreus' expertise in the integration of operating support systems (OSS) and the provisioning of IP services for fixed-line and mobile operators' access networks fosters the evolution of IP architectures globally. The combination of Atreus' services and solutions with Sonus' leadership in IP infrastructure will enable carriers and network operators around the globe to rapidly deploy innovative communication services to their subscribers.

This acquisition demonstrates Sonus Networks' commitment to being a trusted partner for the world's largest carriers. With the Atreus solutions as part of the established Sonus Access portfolio, Sonus is able to provide comprehensive integration services for operators' growing IP-service portfolios, with the network management systems, billing and customer care systems providing a seamless consumer experience for the carrier subscriber.

"The combination of Sonus Networks and Atreus Systems provides the next step in creating a simple and integrated IP communications environment to manage next-generation communications services for consumers around the globe," said Hassan Ahmed, CEO at Sonus Networks. "The key to advancing complete IP networks for voice, data and multimedia services is to provide solutions that increase functionality and ease of use, allowing dependable and innovative environments that make IP services a reality. Our five-year relationship with Atreus convinced us that its technology will help accelerate the industry's growth and complement our access solution portfolio."

The IP provisioning software developed by Atreus Systems has been deployed with some of North America's largest carriers. The Atreus IP Service Provisioning Solution delivers pre-integrated, automated provisioning and configuration for a variety of devices, helping providers to deploy offerings quickly so that they can generate new revenue. Now as part of the Sonus Networks offering, operators will be able to leverage the dedicated expertise of the global Sonus team. Sonus has a heritage and deep understanding of IP infrastructure, applications and operators' operating systems, which are required to increase the speed of service delivery. Today, Sonus Networks' IP migration solutions offer one the most effective ways of getting new monetized services out to customers.

"Atreus Systems has built an award winning IP Service Provisioning Solution that helps providers deploy offerings quickly so that they can generate new revenue. The OSS in many of these large carriers is complex, so integration with their infrastructure is a key to the success of these deployments," said Andrea Baptiste, CEO at Atreus Systems. "With Atreus' joining Sonus Networks, customers will have access to the highest levels of IP integration expertise, and our technology will be available through a global organization to meet the growing demand for IP migrations and the necessary back office integration to deliver the mulitplay services required by business and home subscribers alike."

Founded in 1999, Atreus Systems is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Atreus' provisioning platform is based on a robust and flexible industry-standard J2EE architecture that enables providers to provision new residential voice subscribers simply and rapidly using process automation, device- and vendor-specific adaptors, and wizard-driven self-service portals.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

About Sonus Networks
Sonus Networks, Inc. is a market leader in IP communications infrastructure for wireline and wireless service providers. With its comprehensive IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution, Sonus addresses the full range of carrier applications, including residential and business voice services, wireless voice and multimedia, trunking and tandem switching, carrier interconnection and enhanced services. Sonus' voice infrastructure solutions are deployed in service provider networks worldwide. Founded in 1997, Sonus is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts. Additional information on Sonus is available at http://www.sonusnet.com.

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to Item 1A "Risk Factors" of Sonus' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2007, filed with the SEC, which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Risk factors include among others: the impact of material weaknesses in our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting on our ability to report our financial results timely and accurately; the unpredictability of our quarterly financial results; risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's restatement of its historical stock option granting practices and accounting including regulatory actions or litigation; risks associated with our international expansion and growth; consolidation in the telecommunications industry; and potential costs resulting from pending securities litigation against the Company. Any forward-looking statements represent Sonus' views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing Sonus' views as of any subsequent date. While Sonus may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Sonus specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law.

Sonus is a registered trademark of Sonus Networks, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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In keeping with the work I've been doing on next month's eJournal here's another story on HD audio. Vapps, the leading provider of high-definition ad-hoc audio conferencing, will be announcing an upgrade to its Skype Extra plug-in tomorrow that will help Vapps users internationally. Those on Skype may click on the "Do More" menu, which will now appear and operate in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish, in addition to English. This is bundled with other valuable features that appear in the press release below.

VAPPS UPDATES SKYPE EXTRA:
HIGH-DEFINITION CONFERENCING TOOL
LAUNCHES WITHIN SKYPE IN NINE LANGUAGES

With Skype's Contact List, a Click and a New Multilingual Interface,
Users Create Audioconferences in Which Two to 500 Sound Live and In-person

HOBOKEN, N.J.-April 22, 2008--Vapps, Inc., provider of affordable, flat-rate audioconferencing services with in-the-room sound quality, today announced an update of its Skype Extra, a plug-in that launches the full feature set of its High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C) service from within the globally adopted Skype™ internet communications application.

Vapps' added HD-C to Skype's Extras Gallery in October 2007, uniquely conferencing together public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Skype users for a value-priced flat monthly fee ranging from $25 for as many as 10 users to $200 for as many as 500. The convenience of Vapps' Skype plug-in--with 100,000 registered users to date--encourages frequent, ad-hoc use, and along with the flat-rate pricing makes it easier for growing companies with remote teleworkers to manage costs.

Those on Skype may click on the "Do More" menu option to open the HD-C plug-in, which will now appear and operate in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish, in addition to English. From that interface, they can start meetings on the spot, inviting fellow Skype users by sending automated chat messages. (Should Skype contacts be caught with their headphones unplugged, the chat invite offers a telephone phone number for joining the conference as well.) They can also click on the interface's "schedule" button, auto-logging into the HD-C site, to schedule meetings of as many as 500 attendees and send e-mail invitations to others, as well as their Skype contacts.

Better-than-phone sound quality
Skype-connected participants enjoy unprecedented sound quality through the Vapps platform's wideband connectivity. The traditional phone system, with its century-old copper wiring, transmits a frequency range of only 3.5 kHz out of the 20 kHz or so the human ear can hear. With a range so clipped, "f" and "s" are indistinguishable, singing is tinny and people feel distant. Through the wideband data lines used by Skype and other VoIP providers, HD-C can fit a voice frequency range of 16KHz. Result: Attendees hear four times better, feel more "present" with more true-to-life sound and can better detect who is speaking. And as with any IP-to-IP voice call, they avoid local and international calling charges, a particular benefit to international phone conferences.

The expanded audio range also helps listeners understand speakers who have accents, and non-native speakers understand the conference language. In any language, it promotes comprehension and retention by alleviating the ear fatigue of long phone conferences, and transmits more of the speaker's inflection, nuance, attitude and even physical motion at a table or around the room.

Vapps' Skype Extra plug-in allows meeting coordinators to see who has joined or left, to mute and unmute participants and to record the conference. Attendees have their own HD-C browser-based controls with which to raise their hands, mute themselves and see who is on the conference.

To demonstrate high-definition voice quality to a conferencing public that has only known the phone, Vapps is offering a free, 10-day trial of its 25-user package. This provides unlimited conference calls for as many as 25 people on Skype and on the telephone. After ten days, users may sign up via credit card. Without sign-up, any further use of HD-C will be charged on a pay-as-you-go plan in cooperation with Skype, which will deduct four cents per minute of use from users' Skype Credits on Vapps' behalf.

"Millions of people have come to use and keep Skype running all day, every day," said Ben Lilienthal, Vapps CEO. "The update of our plug-in in the Skype Extras Gallery encourages more people to use High-Definition Conferencing to the fullest extent and as often as possible, for the same monthly price. It attaches in-person-quality, crystal-clear audioconferencing, scalability, recording and playback capability, and professional moderation controls to the Skype contact list at a time when more and more business people are using Skype."

About Vapps, Inc.
Vapps, Inc., based in Hoboken, N.J., provides managed audioconferencing solutions to the SMB, enterprise and service provider markets using its patent-pending, wide-band audioconferencing technology. Founded in 2003 by Ben Lilienthal and Jerry Norton, Vapps' flagship service is its High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C, www.highspeedconferencing.com), the first and only high-definition, flat-rate audioconference offering that can conference together a mixed participant group of PSTN phone and Skype users.

For Skype-using participants, HD-C transmits a much richer, more "in-the-room" voice quality than can be achieved with traditional phones, dramatically improving the productivity of team collaboration. Vapps' fees for an unlimited number of conferences and conference minutes start at a fixed $25 per month for 10 attendees and scale with the number of participants. For more information, please visit Vapps at www.vapps.com.
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