The SIP Forum Creates SIPconnect Compliant Program to Help Ensure Adherence to SIP Standards
Acme Packet, BroadSoft, Cbeyond, Digium, Ingate Systems and McLeodUSA lead first wave of SIPconnect Compliant Members
SECAUCUS, NJ (September 26, 2007) Channel Partners Conference & Expo – The SIP Forum today announced the introduction of the SIPconnect Compliant program, a unique certification mark created to ensure interoperability among equipment manufacturers, software providers and service providers, as well as to promote further adoption of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as the standard for VoIP communications.
The SIPconnect Compliant logo serves as the “seal of compatibility” for companies that have agreed to abide by the terms of the licensing agreement, and is permitted only on compliant equipment that has been rigorously reviewed and tested. Purchasers relying on the certification mark will enjoy increased interoperability levels. Several industry leaders and SIP Forum members have recently been awarded the SIPconnect Compliant mark, including Acme Packet®, BroadSoft®, Cbeyond®, Digium®, Ingate® Systems and McLeodUSA.
“SIP is the protocol of choice for IP communications going forward, and the pace at which companies are introducing SIP-based products and services is accelerating,” said Joe McGarvey, senior analyst with Heavy Reading. “SIPconnect provides a common framework to ensure products and services that claim to be based on SIP actually are—a key safety check for an industry that is experiencing tremendous growth.”
SIPconnect, an initiative of the SIP Forum, streamlines how service providers and their enterprise customers leverage interactive IP communications services and solutions. A standards-based approach to direct IP peering between SIP-enabled IP PBXs and VoIP service providers, SIPconnect was designed to directly tie enterprise customers to VoIP service providers using an end-to-end IP connection. SIPconnect eliminates the need for VoIP gateway on the premise, improves voice quality and creates the right foundation for personalized applications and rich media services.
“The key to full adoption of the SIP standard is the drive towards total interoperability within the industry,” said Jay Batson, managing director and chairman of the SIP Forum. “Having so many telecommunications innovators embrace this certification mark furthers our belief in the importance of standardizing requirements necessary to elevate VoIP to traditional phone line levels in terms of reliability and predictability.”
“Acme Packet continues to support the mission and goals of the SIP Forum,” said Seamus Hourihan, vice president of marketing and product management at Acme Packet. “This program’s interoperability certification ensures our service provider and enterprise customers can rapidly leverage the benefits that Acme Packet session border controllers bring to the market.”
Scott Hoffpauir, chief technology officer at BroadSoft, said, “SIP has evolved to become the protocol of choice for deploying enhanced data and voice services. BroadSoft’s affiliation with SIPconnect has enabled us to continuously improve our VoIP applications to ensure service providers can offer the most advanced calling features to their enterprise and residential customers.”
“Cbeyond has been utilizing SIPconnect’s standard-based approach to SIP trunking in our BeyondVoice® with SIPconnect service, which has allowed us to provide an integrated package of voice, mobile and broadband services,” said Chris Gatch, chief technology officer for Cbeyond. “Using the SIPconnect Compliant certification mark will help us partner with like-minded companies to provide better and more complete services to our customers.” Digium founder and chief technology officer Mark Spencer remarked, “The presence of a certification mark from the SIPconnect Compliant program assures our partners and customers of our products’ interoperability with SIP devices. SIP offers a standardized way to bridge open source Digium Asterisk products and proprietary solutions.” Ingate Systems chief executive officer Olle Westerberg stated, “With the rapid increase in enterprise adoption of SIP-based technologies, especially SIP trunking, having an identifiable standard will further Ingate’s mission to enable businesses of all sizes to utilize the benefits of SIP-based communications.”
“McLeodUSA is informing customers that SIP trunking is an excellent and cost-effective replacement for primary rate interfaces (PRIs), and ensuring interoperability of networks and equipment is essential for delivering immediate benefits to customers,” said Chris MacFarland, chief technology officer at McLeodUSA. “We’re proud to be among the first SIPconnect Compliant members, and we look forward to collaborating with other industry leaders to enhance SIP-based services and expand SIP adoption in the market.”
About The SIP Forum
The SIP Forum is leading numerous industry activities that promote SIP technology, such as industry recommendations for development of a SIP Phone, SIPit interoperability events and general promotion of SIP in the industry. For more information, please visit: www.sipforum.org and www.sipconnect.info.
About Acme Packet®
Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, enables service providers to deliver trusted, first class interactive communications—voice, video and multimedia sessions—across IP network borders. Our Net-Net family has been selected by over 420 service providers in 81 countries to satisfy critical security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable and wireless networks. Our customers include 23 of the top 25, and 76 of the top 100 service providers in the world. These deployments support multiple applications—from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed mobile convergence; multiple protocols—SIP, H.323, MGCP/NCS and H.248; and multiple border points—interconnect, access network and data center. For more information, contact us at +1-781-328-4400, or visit www.acmepacket.com.
About BroadSoft®
BroadSoft provides VoIP application software that enables the delivery of hosted telephony and multimedia services. Its award-winning flagship BroadWorks® technology empowers wireless, wireline and cable carriers to deliver next-generation voice and multimedia applications and advanced features that enable them to increase revenue, enhance competitive differentiation and elevate customer satisfaction. BroadSoft’s family of carrier-class software products delivers the scale, open architecture and reliability that the world’s leading telecommunications companies demand to serve mission-critical enterprise and residential broadband customers. BroadSoft provides VoIP applications to 7 of the top 10 and 13 of the top 25 largest carriers worldwide, as measured by recent annual revenue, including Korea Telecom, KPN, Singtel, Sprint, Telefonica de Espana, Telstra, T-Systems, and Verizon. For additional information, go to www.BroadSoft.com.
About Cbeyond®
Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY) is a leading IP-based managed services provider that delivers integrated packages of communications and IT services to more than 31,000 small businesses throughout the United States. Cbeyond offers more than 20 productivity-enhancing applications including local and long-distance voice, broadband Internet, mobile, BlackBerry®, broadband laptop access, voicemail, email, web hosting, fax-to-email, data backup, file-sharing and virtual private networking. Cbeyond manages these services over a private, 100-percent Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) facilities-based network. For more information on Cbeyond, visit www.cbeyond.net.
About Digium®
Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, created, owns and is the innovative force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software. Since its founding in 1999, Digium has grown to become the open source alternative to the traditional communication providers, with offerings that cost as much as 80 percent less than proprietary voice communication platforms. Digium makes Asterisk available to the open source community under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and uses business-class Asterisk to power a broad family of products for small, medium and large businesses. The company’s product line also includes a wide range of hardware to enable distributors, resellers and customers to design their own voice over IP (VoIP) systems. This year alone, more than 12 billion minutes of calls will be made using Asterisk. More information is available at www.digium.com.
About Ingate® Systems
Ingate® Systems develops firewall technology and products that enable SIP-based live communication for the enterprise while maintaining control and security at the network edge. Ingate has a long history of developing next-generation firewall technology that solves the NAT/firewall traversal issue inherent in SIP communications. In addition to an extensive line of Ingate Firewalls®, the company also produces the award-winning Ingate SIParator®, a device that connects to an existing network firewall to seamlessly enable SIP communications. Ingate products currently protect the networks of retail companies, financial institutions, industrial firms, government agencies and small-to-large enterprises throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Additionally, Ingate has established the SIP Trunking Network at www.siptrunk.org , an educational resource that aggregates information from throughout the SIP trunking community in an industry-wide effort to educate enterprises about SIP trunking, to help simplify deployments. Ingate Systems AB is headquartered in Sweden with offices in Stockholm and Linköping. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ingate Systems Inc., is located in Hollis, New Hampshire, with a U.S. technology center in Frisco, Texas. For more information on Ingate Systems, visit www.ingate.com.
About McLeodUSA
McLeodUSA provides managed internet protocol-, or IP-, based communications services to small- and medium-sized enterprises, and traditional circuit-switched telephony services to commercial and residential customers in the Midwest, Rocky Mountain, Southwest and Northwest regions of the nation. McLeodUSA delivers a wide variety of broadband IP-based voice and data solutions, targeting primarily small and medium-sized enterprises and multilocation commercial customers.
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