Ascend loses a heavy hitter:
Sonus Networks, developers of the next generation of carrier
grade IP Telephony, today announced its formation and entry into the
high-end IP Telephony Switch market. Sonus Networks has received $23
million in preliminary capital to fund the development and delivery of
products that interconnect the Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN) and carrier IP networks and that meet the stringent
requirements of new and traditional carriers.
The company also disclosed that it has named formed Ascend Senior
Executive Hassan Ahmed as President and CEO. Ahmed is well-known among
service provider organizations for his understanding of carrier
technology issues and his ability to drive organizations toward
products that meet their particular needs.
"The telecommunications industry has come to a consensus that the
future belongs to the converged network -- a single managed IP network
that supports both voice and data," said Ahmed. "Previously announced
IP Telephony products, while perhaps suitable for small scale
deployments, have neither the capabilities nor the performance to meet
the much broader requirements of major carriers and ISPs. These
organizations must more rapidly define and deliver competitive new
user services, substantially scale the size of their networks to
improve their support for escalating IP call volumes and new
applications such as multi-media, manage the flow of traffic among
their existing circuit switched and new IP based traffic paths, and
significantly improve the economics of service delivery. Sonus
Networks' mission is to enable carriers to substantially improve their
central office infrastructure and remain viable in this aggressive new
market."
"Sonus has a clear early leadership position in the carrier-grade
IP telephony market," said Rubin Gruber, Chairman and co-founder. "The
opportunity in this market is reflected in the emergence of several
major new IP-based carriers and announced plans by established
carriers to migrate voice traffic to IP networks. Sonus is in a unique
position to capitalize on the opportunity to provide true
carrier-grade IP telephony equipment that meets this important new
telecommunications market requirement."
Sonus Networks has received preliminary funding of $23 million
from some of the telecommunications industry's most successful and
well-respected venture capital firms, including: Bedrock, Charles
River Ventures, Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and
Bessemer Venture Partners.
Top Industry Talent Positions Sonus for IP Telephony Success
The Sonus executive team is comprised of exceptionally
experienced professionals, including
-- Rubin Gruber, Chairman and co-founder, previously founder of
VideoServer (NASDAQ:VSVR), Davox (NASDAQ:DAVX), and Cambridge
Telecommunications, acquired by GTE (NYSE:GTE);
-- Hassan Ahmed, Ph.D., President and CEO, most recently Executive
Vice President and General Manager of Ascend Communications' (ASND)
Core Systems Division. Previously, he served as Cascade
Communications'Chief Technology Officer was President and founder of
WaveAccess, a pioneer in high speed wireless network products.
-- Dr. Michael Hluchyj, Vice President, founder and CTO, previously VP
and CTO at Summa Four, recently acquired by Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO),
Director of Networking Research at Motorola Codex (NYSE:MOT), and
Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories (NYSE:LU);
-- Kwok Wong, VP of Engineering, formerly Director of Software
Development and Architecture at VideoServer, Director of Software
Development at BBN Communications, and founding member of the software
development team at Davox;
-- Jeffrey Mayersohn, VP for Carrier Relations, formerly Senior Vice
President at GTE (NYSE:GTE) Internetworking, who during his 20-year
tenure at BBN/GTE Internetworking managed relationships with such
organizations at AT&T Worldnet and America Online, and was principal
designer of networks such as the U.S. Defense Data Network.
-- Frank Winiarski, Vice President, Manufacturing, formerly Vice
President of Manufacturing at Net2Net, recently acquired by Visual
Networks (NASDAQ:VNWK), Vice President of Manufacturing at
VideoServer and Synernetics, acquired by 3COM (NASDAQ:COMS), Vice
President for Operations at Ashton-Tate, and Director of Manufacturing
at MASSCOMP.
-- Bob Dye, Director, Product Marketing, was previously Director of
Product Marketing at Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCM) and Compression
Labs (NASDAQ:VTEL), and has also serviced as Senior Director, Product
Management for BBN Communications.
About Sonus Networks
Sonus Networks, Inc. is developing and marketing the next
generation of carrier-grade IP Telephony. Its equipment facilitates
the movement of telephony from traditional circuit networks to packet
networks, enabling a host of new carrier and end user services. The
Sonus management and engineering teams have unsurpassed success in the
development and delivery of carrier-class equipment to support data,
voice and multimedia information. |
