AT&T Forms 'VoIP Innovation and Interoperability Program'

Locking Arms with Industry Leaders AT&T Ensures
Innovation and Interoperability For VoIP Services
Goal is to Speed Adoption, Development and Scaling of VoIP Services

BEDMINSTER, N.J – AT&T today announced a VoIP Innovation and Interoperability Program designed to stimulate and foster the development, delivery and adoption of new applications, capabilities and devices to serve the needs of businesses and consumers utilizing AT&T’s vast VoIP portfolio of services.

The program is based on proprietary specifications created by AT&T that have allowed, and will continue to allow, select vendors to test applications and equipment against these specifications to ensure compatibility with AT&T VoIP services as the company pursues the next generation of communication. To date, a number of industry leaders representing application developers, equipment and device manufacturers, and silicon manufacturers have been invited to work with AT&T to deliver new capabilities that will shape and scale the emerging VoIP market.

“Our vision is to stimulate the development of a broad spectrum of VoIP-enabled devices from chipsets, software and Telephone Adapters to a range of products such as corded and cordless telephones, Wi-Fi phones, game consoles, set-top boxes, routers, modems, PBXs and ACD systems,” said Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony. “By working with developers and manufacturers, we will be able to deliver the benefits of IP-based telephony to businesses and consumers faster and more cost-effectively.”

AT&T Labs oversees the technical aspects of the program and has been diligently working with select vendors on a variety of interoperability initiatives including working with:

• Silicon providers to incorporate AT&T-certified and licensed VoIP functionality into their chip/software designs and reference platforms;
• Equipment designers and manufacturers to embed AT&T CallVantageSM Service technical specifications into the manufacturing process for telephone adapters, consumer devices and new converged products;
• The world’s top IP PBX and VoIP infrastructure providers to ensure interoperability with AT&T services, giving businesses unprecedented choice in migrating to VoIP technology.

Participating companies have been working with AT&T to certify their products as being AT&T VoIP service compatible. And, to the extent appropriate, AT&T Labs has licensed AT&T intellectual property to these companies to achieve interoperability and compatibility of end user devices that meet AT&T service standards.

“Using the expertise and capabilities of AT&T Labs, we tested select IP PBXs and VoIP Telephone Adapters to ensure high-quality voice and data transport,” said Hossein Eslambolchi, president, AT&T Global Networking Technology Services, CTO & CIO. “In addition, we embedded new features on these VoIP-enabled devices that play into our strategic deployment of services over IP. By collapsing all of AT&T’s VoIP relationships into a single, unified program we can better leverage the convergence of IP and network-based applications to serve customers.”

Charter Members of the AT&T VoIP Innovation and Interoperability Program include leading silicon providers Broadcom, Centillium Communications, Intel and Texas Instruments; customer premises equipment manufacturers D-Link, Linksys, and NETGEAR; IP PBX vendors Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Nortel Networks, Siemens, and carrier-grade softswitch and gateway provider Sonus Networks.

As members of the AT&T Program, Broadcom, Centillium Communications, Intel and Texas Instruments are working with AT&T to develop VoIP software and chipsets that can be used in a wide variety of consumer electronic products. These combined initiatives will help create an ecosystem that will enable equipment designers and manufacturers to deliver VoIP products to the marketplace that are certified to work with AT&T’s new broadband phone service.

"AT&T's commitment to deliver a fully featured VoIP services to broadband consumers legitimizes the consumer VoIP market," said Robert Rango, Vice President of Broadcom's Mobile & Wireless Group. "AT&T's dedication to providing world-class service coupled with Broadcom's field-proven silicon and software solutions will bring VoIP service to consumers nationwide, enabling them to benefit from the many advantages VoIP-enabled services can offer."

“As a charter member of the AT&T VoIP Innovation and Interoperability Program, Centillium Communications is the first System-on-a Chip (SoC) vendor working to achieve certification for both Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP),” said Faraj Aalaei, CEO and co-founder of Centillium Communications. “Centillium Communications is working with AT&T to define, develop and validate our VoIP solutions so that they work flawlessly in any end-user environment while delivering the high-level of voice quality that has become a standard at AT&T.”

"Intel is excited to be working with AT&T to extend standards for VoIP and deliver innovative solutions. Improved standards will broaden worldwide VoIP adoption and accelerate the growth of VoIP products and services," said Intel's Howard Bubb, Vice President and General Manger, Communications Infrastructure Group. "We are working with AT&T to create a VoIP gateway reference platform, based on the Intel IXP4xx network processor, for certification with AT&T VoIP service. The reference platform will allow OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to bring feature-rich, compelling products to market later this year."

“As a market leader in VoIP silicon and software, TI brings the breadth of real world deployment in the IP phone and gateway markets to this program to help address standards and interoperability concerns among equipment vendors,” said Fred Zimmerman, Executive Director of CPE Products in TI’s VoIP Business Unit. “In conjunction with our extensive engagements with OEMs, this collaboration with AT&T should quickly promote the development of revolutionary new IP-based communication devices for consumers to leverage as VoIP continues to transform telephony.”

D-Link, which currently provides the Telephone Adapter (TA) used in conjunction with AT&T CallVantage Service; Centillium Communications, Linksys and NETGEAR each participated in the program to design equipment compatible with AT&T VoIP services as well.

The D-Link TA was the first consumer product certified through the AT&T Program and continues to be supplied to consumers through various fulfillment channels. Working with AT&T, D-Link’s MGCP-based TA has been designed to rigorous standards to provide that the voice quality of the customer’s broadband calling experience rivals that of a traditional phone call.

"We are very pleased that an industry telecommunications leader like AT&T selected D-Link as a charter member of its VIIP,” said Steven Joe, President and CEO of D-Link North America. "AT&T CallVantage is an impressive and timely broadband phone service and we are excited that the D-Link Telephone Adapter will help usher in this new era of communications."

Linksys will soon deliver a wired router with voice and a wireless router with voice for retail sales to consumers through retailers with whom AT&T has distribution relationships.

”The Linksys Wireless-G Router with Voice will soon be available to consumers through national retailers,” said Charlie Giancarlo, President of Cisco-Linksys. “With our leadership wireless products and AT&T’s interoperability and certification process, customers will achieve a rewarding quality experience from the time they take our product out of the box.”

NETGEAR will deliver one of the first combination wireless routers with an integrated voice adapter for retail sales to consumers through retailers with whom AT&T and NETGEAR have distribution relationships.

"NETGEAR is excited to work with AT&T as a charter member of the VIIP to bring one of the decade's most exciting new technologies, Voice over IP, to customers," said Patrick Lo, Chairman and CEO, NETGEAR. "By combining AT&T CallVantage Service and NETGEAR wireless networking products, customers will benefit from a complete, reliable and affordable broadband phone solution."

As previously announced, AT&T is the first and to date only IP service provider to announce interoperability agreements with the world’s top IP PBX providers. The certification program established to support these relationships has been moved under the VIIP umbrella. AT&T's comprehensive IP PBX certification and testing procedures provide network security audits and testing before any component is deployed to detect and eliminate any potential vulnerability.

"By coupling AT&T's management and global IP networking expertise with Cisco's leading VoIP technology we can deliver high quality, secure solutions to our joint business customers" said Rick Moran, vice president of product technology marketing at Cisco.”

To address its IP gateway needs for AT&T CallVantage Service, the company turned to Sonus for its carrier-grade voice over broadband (VoBB) solution.

“There is no denying that the world is moving to a broadband voice infrastructure that has the potential to disrupt telecom markets around the world,” said Steve Edwards, chief marketing officer, Sonus Networks. “An industry effort like the one AT&T has proposed, and incubated in its labs, is absolutely a winning formula.”

“These leading equipment vendors are key to AT&T’s plans to expand its VoIP portfolio among business customers who often operate in a multi-vendor environment today,” said Martine. “The conversion to VoIP can be a complex and daunting task for them. Knowing that we can help make that conversion easier should be somewhat assuring.

“We believe the expansion to an industry-based effort would simplify and improve the customer experience by fully integrating carrier-grade VoIP technology into equipment and devices. AT&T is committed to leading that effort and speed the development of next generation VoIP applications that deliver secure, highly reliable quality services.”

In 1997, AT&T first began employing VoIP solutions to address the needs of multi-national corporations. Today, a recognized industry leader, the company has developed a comprehensive set of products and services VoIP-enabling its entire portfolio providing solutions for businesses and consumers.

About AT&T

For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.

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