GENBAND Announces 100th Customer With Buckeye Telesystem's Deployment of G6 Universal Media Gateway

JULY 31, 2006, Plano, TX - GENBAND Inc., a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure products enabling converged services, announced today the company has shipped its flagship G6® Universal Media Gateway to Buckeye TeleSystem in Toledo, Ohio, reaching the 100th customer mark for the G6 platform, which has now taken over the number one market share position in North America for mid-sized media gateways reported by Infonetics Research.

“Four years ago, the G6 reset the packet voice industry with integrated VoIP and VoATM deployments in a purpose built, carrier class architecture,” said Charles Vogt, president and chief executive officer of GENBAND. “The G6 cost-effectively serves both large and small service providers and is deployed in Telco, Cable and Municipality networks across the world. Because of the G6 platform's unique scale and application flexibility, our diverse customer base ranges from service providers deploying a few systems to hundreds of systems serving hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Regardless of the access infrastructure, the G6 has proven to be the market’s choice for deploying advanced VoIP as evidenced by Infonetics reporting that the G6 is the North American market-share leader in low-to-mid sized media gateways.”

Buckeye TeleSystem currently services over 1,500 small to large commercial customers in Ohio and Southeast Michigan with a full suite of voice, video, and data services. Buckeye is using the G6 to provide Class 5-derived voice over cable telephony services to commercial customers, and in the future, will leverage its G6 investment to also provide advanced SIP-based services.

“Delivering the highest quality services is paramount to Buckeye, and as a result, our evaluation process for equipment to deliver leading edge services is very lengthy,” said Joe Jensen, President of Buckeye TeleSystem. “GENBAND’s G6 is a logical choice for us because of its large installed base, including many telcos/cablecos. Technically it’s one of the most flexible systems on the market and it provides an elegant migration path for helping evolve our services infrastructure to take advantage of new SIP-based applications that can provide further differentiation to our offerings.”

G6 Takes Market Leadership Position

Every quarter, Infonetics Research, Inc. tracks the Service Provider Next Gen Voice and IMS Equipment market. The quarterly-produced report tracks several different equipment categories across all regions. In the first quarter of 2006, GENBAND’s G6 Universal Media Gateway took over the top spot for North America’s mid-low media gateway market.

“Over the past eight quarters, GENBAND has been steadily making ground and increasing its market position within the North American market,” said Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst for Service Provider Next Gen Voice & Mobile Core. “GENBAND took over the market leadership in the March-ending quarter as many prominent ILEC, CLEC, and Cable companies chose the G6 for their packet telephony solution.”

About Buckeye TeleSystem
A subsidiary of Block Communications Inc., Buckeye TeleSystem (http://www.buckeye-telesystem.com) was founded in 1994 and has evolved to become one of the largest and most respected facilities-based, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers in Ohio. Buckeye is a predominantly fiber-based provider, focusing on commercial customers. Current Buckeye TeleSystem customers include small business owners, Fortune 500 companies and Education/Governmental entities. Buckeye offers a wide array of telephony and Internet/data products such as Business Telephone Lines, ISDN PRIs, Long Distance, Audio Conferencing, Analog and Digital Centrex and Ethernet-based services.

About GENBAND™
GENBAND™ is a leading supplier of IP Multimedia application, signaling and media gateway communication infrastructure products for a diverse set of VoIP and IMS networks worldwide. GENBAND’s products and solutions enable fixed, cable and mobile service providers rapid deployment of new multimedia services, while providing a foundation to transition legacy networks to next generation networks. GENBAND has deployed its IP Multimedia products and technology to over 100 customers with over 700 deployments, across three continents. Headquartered in Plano, Texas GENBAND has research and development facilities in Austin and Plano, Texas. Additional information is available at www.genband.com.

Contacts:
Noah Sessions
GENBAND Inc.
+1.972.265.3664 (office)
noah.sessions@genband.com