VocalTec and Lucent IP Telephony Platforms First To
Interoperate
ITXC - First to Deploy and Support Interoperable Multi-Vendor Network
HERZLIYA, Israel, MURRAY HILL/NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J.--June 9, 1998-- Announced
at SUPERCOMM98 in Atlanta, Georgia and Voice
on the Net Europe '98 in Oslo, Norway.
In a move that market analysts say will advance the IP telephony industry a giant leap forward,
VocalTec Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: VOCLF - news), Lucent Technologies, and ITXC Corp
today announced plans to develop full interoperability between IP telephony platforms from
VocalTec and Lucent. ITXC will be the first carrier to operate a fully interoperable IP telephony
network using VocalTec's and Lucent's products.
''Lack of vendor interoperability has remained one of the single most serious impediments to the IP
telephony industry,'' said Hilary Mine, senior vice president at Probe Research. ''ITXC, Lucent, and
VocalTec are moving the industry forward to the next level by implementing true gateway and
gatekeeper interoperability. ITXC faces immediate and real demand for solutions that are functional
today. At the same time, no service provider wants to be locked into a single vendor. Lucent and
VocalTec will enable ITXC to meet its customers' longer term requirements by offering not only
vendor choice today, but also future-proofed interoperability on next generation networks.''
In response to customer demands for interoperability, VocalTec, Lucent, and ITXC will develop
complete interoperability between the Lucent PacketStar(tm) Internet Telephony Server for Service
Providers (ITS-SP) and the VocalTec Ensemble Architecture . This solution will address voice
communications, fax communications, routing, authorization, authentication, accounting, billing,
network management and settlement services. Under the first phase of this plan, the companies
expect to deliver interoperable VocalTec and Lucent gateways running on ITXC's commercial
WWeXchangeSM Service in Fall 1998.
''As a customer of Lucent and VocalTec, ITXC spearheaded this effort by two leading providers of
Internet telephony products because interoperability is essential to our own customers,'' said Tom
Evslin, chairman of ITXC Corp ''Until now these resellers, carriers, Internet service providers
(ISPs), and other Internet telephony service providers have had the unsatisfactory choice of either
being restricted to a single vendor with no possibility of second sourcing or running products from
multiple vendors in parallel, incompatible networks. We will provide true multi-vendor
interoperability in our WWeXchange network so that our customers will be the first to benefit from
this expanded choice.''
''For the IP telephony market to grow, interoperability between leading manufacturers' products is a
must . For this purpose, VocalTec is taking the lead with Lucent to bring to market IP telephony
network solutions that offer seamless interoperability,'' said Dr. Elon Ganor, CEO and chairman at
VocalTec Communications. ''Our collaboration is a testament to the strong commitment that both of
our organizations have not only to the H.323 standard but also to the fundamental importance of
playing an active role on the standards-setting bodies. Interoperability is an important step forward
for the IP telephony industry and for VocalTec as it affirms and enhances our role in driving this
industry forward.''
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