Ritter Communications Becomes 12th Telco to Deploy Pannaway Technologies and GENBAND at the Core of its Broadband Network

Portsmouth, NH and Plano, TX – May 22, 2006 – Pannaway Technologies, Inc., designers and developers of next-generation, converged IP broadband systems to telecommunications companies and GENBAND™, a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure products enabling converged services, today announced that Ritter Communications, one of Arkansas’ leading communications providers is the 12th telco to deploy a joint solution using GENBAND’s G6® Universal Media Gateway and Pannaway’s Service Convergence Network (SCNTM).

Ritter, a 100-year old telco, is successfully delivering high-bandwidth broadband services over copper and fiber to local businesses in the banking, healthcare, city government, real estate and insurance market sectors. Ritter is also the principal broadband services provider to The Mall at Turtle Creek, located in Jonesboro, AR. The Mall at Turtle Creek is a recently completed 750,000 square foot retail complex and is home to more than 70 popular retailers, all of which have access to next-generation voice and high-speed data services.

Ritter is one of a growing number of both IOC (Independent Operating Company) and CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) service providers that have chosen the combined GENBAND and Pannaway converged solutions offering. In less than one year, eleven other service providers that include Nsight Telservices of Wisconsin, Polar Communications of North Dakota, Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom of Vermont, KM Telecom of Minnesota, ETEX Telephone Cooperative of Texas and Warwick Valley Telecommunications of New York have also chosen the combined solutions offering from GENBAND and Pannaway.

“Our goal was to deploy a flexible high-performance network capable of supporting the growing converged broadband needs of our business customers”, said K. Rex Mayfield, Vice President – Core Networks at Ritter Communications. “To accomplish this, we selected best-in-class products from GENBAND and Pannaway Technologies. This partnered solution provides us with the cutting-edge technology that we will need for the long-term and because their products are guaranteed interoperable, our network integration process was simplified and accelerated.”

Ritter Communications new next-generation network consists of Pannaway’s Broadband Aggregation Routers (BARTM) which deliver Gigabit Ethernet-based transport with the capacity to scale to 10Gbps, along with Pannaway’s multi-award winning ADSL2+ and Active Ethernet fiber Broadband Access Switches (BASTM) and Residential Gateway NIDs (RGNTM). Pannaway’s SCN solution in concert with GENBAND’s G6 Universal Media Gateway enables the service provider to deliver traditional telephony, voice over IP (VoIP), high-speed data and other multi-media services including video conferencing and medical imaging – all in one low cost, fully integrated solution that leverages the simplest and most scalable technologies available – IP and Ethernet.

“The ability to deliver highly reliable broadband networks that deploy quickly and interoperate with leading products from other manufacturers is paramount”, said Kevin Brown, Vice President of Marketing at Pannaway. “We’re pleased that our extensive interoperability efforts with GENBAND have proven to lessen the network integration burden for telcos like Ritter Communications while allowing them to deliver truly converged voice, video and data services to their valued business customers.”

Pannaway’s highly acclaimed Broadband Access Manager (BAMTM) is also being used by Ritter to simplify the deployment, provisioning and ongoing management of its new IP and Ethernet-based copper and Active fiber-based broadband equipment and services.

GENBAND's award-winning G6® Universal Media Gateway is the industry’s first universal media gateway serving the ILEC/PTT, CLEC, and MSO networks, while providing simultaneous support for all access, reverse and trunking media gateway applications on a single G6 chassis. The product delivers seamless, risk-free migration to next-generation services to address evolving broadband and voice service needs.

“Truly interoperable IP technologies significantly expedite the network integration process for telcos, which in turn allow them to introduce new revenue-generating multi-media services ahead of their competitors”, said Jody Bennett, Vice President of Marketing at GENBAND. “Pannaway Technologies and GENBAND have proven across multiple IP Ethernet service networks that a converged Triple Play solution can be accomplished.”

About GENBAND

GENBAND™ is a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure products enabling converged services for over 90 service providers worldwide.  GENBAND’s portfolio of IMS-based products and solutions allows service providers to maximize the value of their legacy infrastructure while seamlessly migrating to next-generation, multimedia services that enable new, revenue-generating opportunities.  GENBAND’s market-leading, carrier-class G6® Universal Media Gateway and network management system are RUS listed, OSMINE certified, PacketCable™ qualified, and NEBS-3 certified, produced in a TL 9000 registered quality management system, and deployed by ILECs, RLECs, CLECs, and cable-MSOs.  GENBAND’s recently expanded product portfolio further helps service providers gain the benefits of distributed, best of breed networks with the addition of the C2 Signaling Controller that connects SIP networks to legacy SS7 networks and databases, and the S4 Applications Server that provides advanced Class 5 VoIP services to residential and small business customers.  With thirteen patents issued and fifteen pending, GENBAND was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas with research and development locations in Austin, TX, Plano, TX and Brazil.  Additional information is available at www.genband.com.

About Pannaway Technologies

Pannaway delivers customer-proven, broadband access solutions that enable telephone companies to offer new advanced services to their rural subscribers.  Based on industry-standard Internet Protocol (IP), Ethernet and session initiation protocol (SIP) technologies, Pannaway’s Service Convergence Network (SCNTM) architecture allows  telecommunications service providers to increase revenue through the delivery  converged Primary Line VoIPSM, high-speed data and IP TV services.  The privately held company is headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and has been building innovative broadband access solutions and service/support programs to fit the specific needs of rural telecom providers since 2002.

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