Wednesday August 26, 8:06 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Deutsche Telekom, Europe's Largest Telecommunications
Company, Announces New "PC-to-Phone" Pilot Project
Using Ascend's MultiVoice Voice-over-IP Platform
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 1998--Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASND - news), a
leader in wide area networking (WAN) solutions for providers and users of the Public Network, announced today that
Deutsche Telekom will launch a wide scale pilot Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony service this year, using Ascend
Communications MultiVoice for the MAX platform.
The new pilot VoIP service will provide 1,000 T-Online subscribers (the online and Internet service of Deutsche Telekom)
with the ability to make International calls using VOIP: subscribers simply dial via a multimedia-PC, which converts the call
into IP-packets, and the call is automatically routed to the nearest Deutsche Telekom Point of Presence (PoP). The number
dialed determines the way the packets are routed into the public network from the PoP. At the given destination, e.g. New
York, the Voice-over-IP-Gateway, equipped with Ascend's MAX 6000 WAN access switch, converts the IP packets back
into voice and forwards the call to the public network. The receiver can simply pick up the call via a standard telephone.
The ''PC-to-Phone'' pilot project will offer VoIP connections from Germany to the following countries: Austria, France,
Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore as well as the USA and Canada.
''We expect positive synergy between our existing dial-in access platform, using Ascend's technology, and our
PC-to-Phone-Project, as we can easily combine Ascend's MultiVoice platform for the new VoIP service with their proven
access technology,'' said Wolfgang Schmitz, Senior Manager for Deutsche Telekom's Center for Internet and Data Network
Platforms in Darmstadt, Germany.
''We are very pleased that Europe's largest carrier will be using our solution in their pilot VoIP service,'' said Roger Boyce,
Vice President and General Manager of Ascend Communications Enterprise Access Division. ''Deutsche Telekom's new
PC-to-Phone project is not only based on our powerful dial-in access equipment, but also on Ascend's expertise in the VoIP
telephony sector.''
T-Online is the online and Internet service of Deutsche Telekom AG [NYSE:DT - news]. With a total of 2.3 million users it
has become the biggest in Europe. In addition to traditional services like on-line banking, databases, on-line shopping and
information systems, T-Online also offers comprehensive Internet services. Further information can be found on the World
Wide Web at: t-online.de.
Regards
Neil |
