26th February , 2004

Europe France : Lucent Technologies announced that it has teamed with Cisco Systems to develop a carrier-class voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and multimedia communications solution for mobile service providers. The solution was developed under a development agreement signed last year, and is in trials in customer networks around the world.

The Lucent-Cisco mobile networking solution - which combines the Lucent Softswitch (LSS) and Cisco MGX 8000 Series Media Gateways -- is part of Lucent's recently announced Accelerate(tm) Voice over IP (VoIP) Solutions portfolio. Lucent's Accelerate(tm) solutions support the convergence of traditional voice services with multimedia services, including Web-based features.

Lucent's industry-leading expertise in mobile networking combined with Cisco's IP networking leadership offers customers the best-in-class, end-to-end solutions critical for delivering the high-speed data and low-cost, packet-based voice services of third-generation (3G) mobile networks. As a result, mobile operators can more quickly tap into the new revenue streams being created by the growing demand for high-speed mobile data.

"This successful integration of the LSS and Cisco MGX 8000 Series Media Gateways puts us in an ideal position to meet mobile operators' growing requirement to deliver converged IP-based services -- such as VoIP, high-speed data and multimedia communications -- across third-generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and CDMA2000 and CDMA450 mobile networks," said John Marinho, vice president of offer management with Lucent's Mobility Solutions Group. "This will enable operators to take advantage of the tremendous revenue potential, and cost savings made possible by IP technology."

"With this combined best-in-class packet voice solution from Cisco and Lucent, mobile operators gain significant operational savings and service efficiencies with a consolidated packet network," said Kambiz Hooshmand, VP/GM of Cisco's Carrier Core and Multiservice Business Unit. "This provides a strong foundation for the delivery of next-generation, differentiated IP services."

This joint product offering follows the successful completion by the two companies last year of VoIP and VoATM calls using the joint solution. The calls -- completed in Lucent's Lisle, Illinois lab and in Cisco's San Jose lab -- were made using the H.248 Media Gateway Control Protocol, which allows a Softswitch, serving as the media gateway controller, to communicate with media gateway s that are used to convert data from the format required for a circuit-switched network to that required for a packet-switched network. Calls between mobile phones, and from a mobile phone to the PSTN (public switched telephone network) were successfully completed.

Background
In January 2003, Lucent and Cisco Systems entered into an agreement, under which Lucent is integrating and reselling select Cisco packet data and media gateway products as part of Lucent's mobile networking product offering for the mobile service provider market. Later in 2003 the two companies expanded on their initial, global supply contract and signed a development to collaborate on accelerating the mobile operator market for VoIP.

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