Copper Mountain, Sonus Networks Announce Partnership to Offer Carriers Complete, Next-Generation, Voice Solutions

Copper Mountain and Sonus Networks Will Market and Deliver Distributed, Next-Generation Voice Solutions for Business and Residential Broadband Users

BOSTON, Mass., DSLcon 2000 Conference and Exposition, World Trade Center Booth #425, September 18, 2000  – Copper Mountain Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMTN), a leading provider of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) solutions for business and residential users, and Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading provider of voice infrastructure products for the new public network, are partnering to offer carriers and service providers an end-to-end solution for next-generation, distributed packet voice services. This new solution is leading the evolution of today’s separate legacy voice and data networks into the age of converged services, where carriers can deliver enhanced voice and data offerings over the most cost-efficient broadband packet infrastructure.

Under the terms of the companies’ agreement, Copper Mountain’s CopperEdge(R) concentrators and CopperRocket(R) Integrated Access Devices (IADs) will interoperate with Sonus’ GSX9000TM Open Services Switch and PSX6000TM SoftSwitch. The two "best-in-class" companies will also jointly market and deliver their comprehensive and robust solutions that allow a wide range of carriers to offer voice service without having to deploy expensive, centralized, legacy circuit-switched equipment. Trials with joint carrier customers are currently underway and the Copper Mountain/Sonus packet voice solution is being demonstrated this week at DSLcon 2000.

"With their IP-intelligent DSL concentrators and IADs, Copper Mountain offers two crucial elements of the comprehensive access strategy we had outlined earlier this year," commented Hassan Ahmed, Sonus president and CEO. "Copper Mountain is recognized as the market leader in business DSL and voice over DSL, and we look forward to working with them to provide carriers a complete, end-to-end packet voice solution." 

"Sonus Networks is an industry leader in anticipating the network’s evolution, and in providing solutions that empower carriers to deliver toll-quality voice and high-value data services cost-effectively," said Rick Gilbert, president and CEO of Copper Mountain Networks. "We are very pleased to partner with Sonus to deliver a robust, distributed, and scalable next-generation voice network that will meet the needs of business and residential customers today and in the future."

"This interoperability and marketing partnership between Copper Mountain and Sonus is significant, since it means that carriers can now take advantage of a cost-effective, distributed voice architecture," said Ron Westfall, senior analyst at Current Analysis. "It is now possible for ILECs, CLECs, and other carriers to set up toll-quality voice networks without purchasing expensive Time Division Multiplexing circuit switches."

Distributed, Packet-Switched Architecture is Scaleable, Cost-Effective, and Designed to Integrate Next-Generation Converged Services

Legacy networks in use today rely on expensive and complex Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) circuit switches located at subscriber end offices and regional toll switching centers. These networks are expensive to scale, and to transition to next-generation converged services. Next-generation distributed packet voice networks are decentralized, dividing network functions among lower-cost broadband voice devices, including trunk gateways and softswitches, which are optimally distributed through the network, and properly sized for each point of presence. Using advanced signaling protocols like the media gateway control protocol (MGCP), these devices perform call control and routing for subscriber telephony traffic between packet voice endpoints or between packet and circuit-switched subscribers. Copper Mountain’s CopperRocket 408 Integrated Access Devices (IADs) are the only commercially-deployed IADs to support MGCP.

Layer 3 intelligence—the ability to inspect, differentiate, and optimally route IP traffic flows—is essential to deliver distributed packet-voice solutions: it is a key element of Copper Mountain’s DSL equipment, and is an important capability of Sonus’ voice gateways and softswitches. Unlike Layer 2-only products, Layer 3-based solutions can differentiate between voice, VPN, and Internet packets, make data and call routing decisions, assign different forwarding priorities, and provide security based on service content. The legacy TDM network and the newer, GR303-based collapsed layer 2 architectures do not take advantage of intelligent broadband access platforms, and require that all voice traffic be terminated on large centralized gateways, rather than routing calls at various points in the network. 

About the Copper Mountain/Sonus End-to-End Solution

The Copper Mountain/Sonus partnership offers carriers the following elements to provide a seamless voice solution, from the subscribers’ premises to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN):

• CopperRocket 408 IAD –Voice in Packet (VIP) technology enables a range of toll-quality voice services, as well as high-speed data access, all delivered over a single inexpensive copper loop.
• CopperEdge DSL Concentrators – IP IQ™, Copper Mountain’s IP service intelligence, enables dynamic recognition of user profiles and services at the IP layer and appropriate routing of voice traffic between on-net and off-net resources.
• Sonus GSX9000 Open Services Switch –Carrier-class, scalable, fully redundant media gateway enables communication between traditional PSTN-based telephones and new IP-based voice devices.
• Sonus PSX6000 SoftSwitch – Controls all service, features, call routing and QoS requirements; communicates with other network elements, ensuring consistent application of configurable network policies.
• Sonus SGX2000 SS7 Signaling Gateway – Supports ANSI and ITU versions of ISDN User Part (ISUP) protocols, allowing seamless interoperation with existing PSTN switches, and Transaction Capabilities Application Part (TCAP) for interoperation with SS7 Service Control Points (SCPs).

About Sonus Networks

Sonus Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of voice infrastructure products for the new public network. Sonus’ solutions enable service providers to deploy an integrated network capable of carrying both voice and data traffic, and to deliver a range of innovative new services. The Sonus Open Services Architecture (OSA) and award-winning Packet Telephony suite cut the time-to-market for competitive new service products, allowing carriers and third-party developers to expand market share and build important new revenue streams. Its highly scalable products fully interoperate with and extend the life and utility of today’s public network. Sonus embodies in its management and staff decades of experience in developing carrier-class voice, data and multimedia solutions for implementation in the world’s largest networks. Sonus, founded in 1997, is headquartered in Westford, Mass. Additional information on Sonus is available at http://www.sonusnet.com. 

About Copper Mountain Networks

Copper Mountain Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMTN) develops and markets a comprehensive family of DSL solutions that enable high-speed internetworking over existing copper facilities. The company's mission is to enable carriers and other service providers to offer a full range of high-performance, cost-effective data and voice services over DSL that are easy to deploy, use, and manage. Copper Mountain's CopperRocket(R) CPE family addresses the bandwidth, reliability, ease-of-use, and cost concerns of remote offices and users. Its CopperEdge(R) and OnPrem™ DSL concentrators and CopperView™ network management solutions offer a robust and scalable platform for carriers and multi-tenant unit service providers to generate a high return on investment while satisfying the ever-increasing user demand for bandwidth. Customers wanting more information about Copper Mountain products can contact Richard Washbourne at 1.650.687.3380 or visit the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.coppermountain.com. For investor relations information, call toll free 1.877.INFO.CMTN (463.6268) or contact us at IR@coppermountain.com

Portions of this release contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Copper Mountain wishes to caution you that there are some factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, quarterly fluctuations in operating results attributable to the timing and amount of orders for our products, the concentration of our revenue in a small number of customers, risks related to integrating the operations and products of OnPrem Networks with our own operations and product offerings, risks related to our rapid growth, factors affecting the rate of DSL deployment by our customers, market acceptance of our products, our ability to keep pace with rapidly changing product requirements, and factors affecting the demand for DSL technologies. We refer you to the documents Copper Mountain files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 and other reports and filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Copper Mountain and all Copper Mountain product names are trademarks of Copper Mountain Networks, Inc. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective holders