VocalTec and Lucent IP Telephony Platforms First To Interoperate ITXC - First to Deploy and Support Interoperable Multi-Vendor Network
Announced at SUPERCOMM98 in Atlanta, Georgia and Voice on the Net Europe ’98 in Oslo, Norway.
For Release: June 8, 1998, HERZLIYA, ISRAEL, MURRAY HILL, NEW JERSEY,
and NORTH BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY -- In a move that market analysts say will
advance the IP telephony industry a giant leap forward, VocalTec Communications
Ltd. (Nasdaq: VOCLF), Lucent Technologies, and ITXC Corp. today announced plans
to develop full interoperability between IP telephony platforms from VocalTec and
Lucent. ITXC will be the first carrier to operate a fully interoperable IP telephony
network using VocalTec’s and Lucent’s products.
"Lack of vendor interoperability has remained one of the single most serious
impediments to the IP telephony industry," said Hillary Mine, senior vice president at
Probe Research. "ITXC, Lucent, and VocalTec are moving the industry forward to the
next level by implementing true gateway and gatekeeper interoperability. ITXC faces
immediate and real demand for solutions that are functional today. At the same time,
no service provider wants to be locked into a single vendor. Lucent and VocalTec will
enable ITXC to meet its customers’ longer term requirements by offering not only
vendor choice today, but also future-proofed interoperability on next generation
networks."
In response to customer demands for interoperability, VocalTec, Lucent, and ITXC will
develop complete interoperability between the Lucent PacketStar™ Internet
Telephony Server for Service Providers (ITS-SP) and the VocalTec Ensemble
Architecture™. This solution will address voice communications, fax,
communications, routing, authorization, authentication, accounting, billing, network
management and settlement services. Under the first phase of this plan, the
companies expect to deliver interoperable VocalTec and Lucent gateways running on
ITXC’s commercial WWeXchangeSM Service in Fall 1998.
"As a customer of Lucent and VocalTec, ITXC spearheaded this effort by two leading
providers of Internet telephony products because interoperability is essential to our
own customers," said Tom Evslin, chairman of ITXC Corp. "Until now these resellers,
carriers, Internet service providers (ISPs), and other Internet telephony service
providers have had the unsatisfactory choice of either being restricted to a single
vendor with no possibility of second sourcing or running products from multiple
vendors in parallel, incompatible networks. We will provide true multi-vendor
interoperability in our WWeXchange network so that our customers will be the first to
benefit from this expanded choice."
"For the IP telephony market to grow, interoperability between leading manufacturer’s
products is a must. For this purpose, VocalTec is taking the lead with Lucent to bring
to market IP telephony network solutions that offer seamless interoperability," said
Dr. Elon Ganor, CEO and chairman at VocalTec Communications. "Our collaboration
is a testament to the strong commitment that both of our organizations have not only
to the H.323 standard but also to the fundamental importance of playing an active role
on the standards-setting bodies. Interoperability is an important step forward for the IP
telephony industry and for VocalTec as it affirms and enhances our role in driving this
industry forward."
"After many trials and pilots, the commercial availability of interoperable products is a
critical next step in the maturity of IP telephony," said Karyn Mashima, vice president
of Lucent Data Networking Systems. "Now, we are providing customers a way to
bring isolated IP telephony solutions together over a single interoperable global
network."'
"I am very excited to see two competing vendors working together to advance
interoperability," said Francois-Eric de Repentigny, industry analyst at Frost &
Sullivan. "This could be the signal the rest of the industry was waiting for, the
beginning of a chain reaction."
ITXC supports on its WWeXchange Service the VocalTec Ensemble Architecture and
today announced that support of Lucent’s Packet Star ITS-SP is also currently
available.
About VocalTec Communications:
VocalTec Communications software enables audio, video, data, text and collaborative
communications between personal computers and other devices over the Internet.
VocalTec is a leader in developing innovative, open standards products that bridge the
Internet and the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) and drive the
convergence of computing and telephone technologies. VocalTec owns a minority
equity interest in ITXC. More information about VocalTec Communications,
headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, is available on its Web site at
http://www.vocaltec.com. For more information on the VocalTec Ensemble
Architecture, please visit http://www.vocaltec.com.
About Lucent Technologies:
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private
networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems,
business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the
research and development arm for the company. More information about Lucent
Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, NJ, is available on its Web site at
http://www.lucent.com. For more information on Lucent's PacketStar ITS-SP, please
visit http://www.lucent.com.
About ITXC Corp.:
ITXC Corp was started in 1997 by Tom Evslin, founder and former VP in charge of
AT&T WorldNetSM Service. A privately-held company, whose name stands for
Internet Telephony eXchange Carrier, ITXC provides wholesale services to the new
Internet telephony industry. Its first service, WWeXchangeSM began operation in April
of 1998 and provides network monitoring, routing, authorization, and settlement for IP
phone calls. By connecting the networks of Internet telephony service providers
worldwide, ITXC provides IP connectivity to all of the United States and many major
cities overseas as well as combined IP-PSTN service to every phone in the world. For
more information, please see our web site at http://www.itxc.com.
Editors Note:
ITXC trademark language
PacketStar™ is a registered trademark of Lucent Technologies.
VocalTec¨ and VocalTec Ensemble Architecture™ are trademarks or registered
trademarks of VocalTec Communications Ltd.
Certain statements contained in this release, may contain forward-looking information
with respect to plans, projections or future performance of VocalTec Communications
the occurrence of which involves certain risks and uncertainties, including, but not
limited to, product and market acceptance risks, the impact of competitive pricing,
competitive products, product development, commercialization and technological
difficulties and other risks detailed in the Company’s reports filed from time to time
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For more information contact:
Marty Querzoli/Theresa Edo
VocalTec Communications Ltd. / LNS Communications
+1-617-577-9777
Stephen Loudermilk
Lucent Technologies
+1-908-953-7514