ERICSSON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEADING EQUIPMENT VENDORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS AND RESEARCH
ORGANIZATIONS UNITE TO ADVANCE INTERNET TELEPHONY STANDARD

Third SIP Bake-Off brings 26 organizations together to test for
interoperability using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

Richardson, Texas - December 14, 1999 - Engineering groups representing
leading vendors, service providers and research organizations met last
week to test the interoperability of their Internet telephony products.

The technology "bake-off" was the industry?s third event organized to
test the interoperability of software and hardware devices using the
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which is used to initiate, manage and
terminate interactive sessions, including voice, across a wide area
network.  SIP became an official standard of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) in March 1999 and has gained significant support among
telco equipment vendors, carriers, CLECs, cable operators and web based
voice chat providers.

The Third SIP Bake-Off, sponsored by Ericsson, was the largest event to
date to test for industry interoperability using SIP, with 31 teams from
26 companies and research organizations taking part.  Participants
tested interoperability of basic call setup and of more advanced
features, including security, location and mobility features, call
routing services and call center applications.  Participants paired up
in rounds, and in each round attempted to execute a suite of tests to
determine the level of interoperability.

The highlight of the event was a complex call scenario, involving four
clients and three servers, each from a different vendor.  In this
scenario, a caller initiating a call was immediately challenged to
authenticate himself to a server.  After successfully authenticating,
the call was routed through three servers, causing three separate phones
to ring at once.  After one of the ringing phones was picked up, the
proxies exchanged messages causing the other phones to stop ringing.  At
that point, the two parties were connected and were able to talk to each
other and then disconnect.

Any problems that arose during the tests were discussed among the teams
to determine whether they were caused by troubles with implementation or
by an ambiguity in the specification.  All ambiguities were recorded so
they could be clarified in the next version of the SIP specification.

These kinds of interoperability tests are a key component of the IETF
standards process.  Requests for Comments (RFCs), or official standards
from the IETF, progress through three phases of maturity as the
protocols are rolled out and deployed.  SIP is currently at the first
phase, proposed standard RFC, and interoperability of every feature must
be demonstrated in order to advance to the next stage, draft standard
RFC.

Ericsson is the first vendor to sponsor a SIP Bake-Off.  Previous SIP
Bake-Off events have been sponsored by Pulver.com in August and Columbia
University in April 1999.

Organizations participating in the Third SIP Bake-Off included:  3Com
Corporation (NASD:COMS), 8x8 (NASD:EGHT), Agilent, BroadSoft, Catapult
Communications, Cisco Systems (NASD:CSCO), Columbia University, Delta,
dynamicsoft, E*Club (Carnegie Mellon University), Ericsson Inc. 
(NASD:ERICY), Helsinki University of Technology, Hewlett-Packard Labs,
Indigo, IPCell Technologies, MCI WorldCom (NASD:WCOM), Mediatrix, Mitel
Corp (NYSE:MLT)., Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT), Nuera Communications,
OZ.COM, Pingtel Corp., Radcom Equipment, Inc., RaveTel, Telogy Networks,
and Vovida Networks, Inc.

"When 26 vendors, service providers and research organizations come
together to test their equipment for interoperability, it really attests
to the industry's commitment to meeting the needs of customers," said
Mats Nilsson, corporate director of technical standards strategy at
Ericsson.  "Ericsson is proud to be the first vendor sponsor of an event
that provides a truly open, unbiased network to test for
interoperability and that furthers the development of SIP as one of the
key components in the new telecoms world."

"This third round of SIP testing gives all leading IP telephony vendors
a great opportunity to test more advanced features.  We welcome
participating in the SIP Bake-Offs in order to ensure product
interoperability -- from intelligent phones to media gateways and
back-end servers -- and to be a part of introducing SIP as an effective
protocol for implementing voice over IP," said Andrew Bezaitis,
director, business development and marketing, Internet Communications
Group, 3Com Corporation.  "As the IP Telephony market continues its
rapid maturation, SIP-based solutions stand to provide significant value
in enabling enhanced services.?

"Participation in industry interoperability events such as the SIP
bakeoff allows us to validate the operation of tools such as call trace
and protocol analysis for the carrier networks of the future.  Agilent
network monitoring solutions help operators reduce costs, increase
quality of service and deliver industry leading services over any
network." said Tom White, senior vice president and general manger for
Agilent Technologies' Communications Solutions Group.

"Having been designed with interoperability in mind, SIP is key to
ensuring that enhanced services run smoothly across packet networks,"
said Scott Hoffpauir, vice president of engineering at BroadSoft. 
"BroadSoft is dedicated to providing service delivery and creation
platforms that create a basis for new value propositions.  The SIP
Bakeoff is an ideal forum for ensuring interoperability among vendors
who are forming the basis of the next generation network."

"The camaraderie between participants was outstanding at the Third SIP
Bake-Off.  This interoperability event enabled us to learn the testing
needs of our customers first-hand and put our multiple testing
capabilities to the test by interacting with numerous vendors
simultaneously," said Richard Mott, Catapult Communications regional
manager.

"Interoperability events have proven to be effective, and the SIP
Bake-Off was no exception," said Neil Urban, development manager at
Delta Information Systems.  "This latest SIP Bakeoff provided an
excellent opportunity to interact with a wide array of multi-vendor
products, ensuring the reliability and robustness of our protocol
analysis equipment."

"This bakeoff demonstrated that multi-vendor interoperability for
real-world call scenarios is now a reality," said Jonathan Rosenberg,
chief scientist at dynamicsoft and co-author of the SIP specification. 
"This further validates that SIP is ready for deployment."

"It was a great experience to test our implementation with others from
different companies and see that, after all....it works!!" said
Inmaculada Espigares from Helsinki University of Technology.  "We had
never seen so many people so happy after hearing a telephone RING!"

"We see SIP as the key for opening the long-awaited Internet telephony
era.  Its natural integration with web and email services makes it the
ideal lever to make good on the promises of Internet telephony. 
Adopting this technology will enable ISPs and operators to offer
resolute new services to their customers," said Emmanuel Bertrand, CEO
of Indigo Software.

"Mitel is fully supportive of all activities directed towards
standardization in the IP telephony market.  Interoperability is of
course key to this, and the SIP bakeoffs are proving to be excellent
testing ground for the technology as the market develops," said Trefor
Davis, IP telephony product line manager at Mitel.

"This event went a long way to resolving outstanding issues in
implementing the IETF RFC 2543 and in establishing interoperability
among multiple vendors' SIP implementations.  It hastened the day when
SIP will be a pervasive protocol in voice over IP network deployments,"
said Neville O'Reilly, vice president, Business Development, NetSpeak.

"SIP is a great standard to interoperate between existing telephony
service and new IP based services" says Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, CTO of
OZ.COM.  "By using SIP in the iPulseTM product that we co-develop with
Ericsson, we effectively provide a true convergence platform, on which
third parties can easily add new communication services."

"The tremendous momentum behind SIP is clearly evident from both the
attendance and enthusiasm at this bake-off, " said Jay Batson, CEO of
Pingtel.  "SIP's inherent functionality, scalability and opportunities
for endless innovation using an intelligent endpoint are making SIP the
preferred protocol for both enterprise and service provider VoIP
networks."

"RADCOM is committed to providing innovative, effective solutions to
interoperability and other convergence problems," said Anthony S. 
Wiley, president of RADCOM Equipment Inc.  "We are therefore pleased to
have had the opportunity to prove our decodes and provide performance
analyses on the SIP-based, Internet telephony devices represented at
this exciting event."

"Standards-based IP communication is the future of converged networks,"
said Ben Jenkins, CEO of RaveTel.  "By participating in this kind of
forum, we are ensuring that our products will work seamlessly with those
of other vendors."

"Telogy Networks welcomes participation in interoperability events such
as this Third SIP Bake-off, which we view as a tool for accelerating the
rapid deployment of new standards," said Ed Morgan, executive director,
Research and Development for Telogy Networks, A Texas Instruments
Company.  "Telogy plans to offer SIP as a protocol option for VoIP
applications such as gateways, IP phones, cable modems, and other new
products."

"We gladly participate in industry interoperability testing such as this
so companies using our stacks don't have to replicate the test effort,"
said Luan Dang, senior vice president, CTO and co-founder of Vovida
Networks.  "Vovida continues its support of the SIP, MGCP and H.323
protocols in our products and is committed to supporting events such as
these that further interoperability and open source adoption of VoIP
standards."

More information about the Third SIP Bake-Off can be found at
http://www.sipbakeoff.org.
More information about SIP can be found at
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/sip.

For additional information, contact the press relations department of
any of the participating organizations:

Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with
communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies
with freedom of mobility for the user.  With more than 100,000 employees
in140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers
-network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the
world over.

With over 300 million customer connections worldwide, 3Com Corporation
connects more people and organizations to information and each other in
more innovative, simple and reliable ways than any other networking
company.  3Com delivers e-Networking solutions through information
access products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses,
consumers, carriers and network service providers.  For further
information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the
press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.

Agilent Technologies, Inc.  is a diversified technology company,
resulting from Hewlett-Packard Company's plan to strategically re-align
itself into two fully independent companies.  With 42,000 employees
serving customers in more than 120 countries, Agilent Technologies, as a
subsidiary of HP, is a global leader in designing and manufacturing
test, measurement and monitoring instruments, systems and solutions, and
semiconductor and optical components.  The company serves markets that
include communications, electronics, life sciences and healthcare.  The
businesses comprising Agilent had net revenues of more than $8.3 billion
in fiscal year 1999.  Information about Agilent Technologies can be
found on the Web at http://www.agilent.com.

BroadSoft is the leading provider of service delivery systems and
service creation tools for next-generation communications networks.  The
company's flagship product, BroadWorks, allows service providers to
offer innovative new communications services such as IP Centrex and
other enhanced services, on an open, hardware-independent platform. 
Founded in 1998, BroadSoft is located outside of Washington, DC and is a
privately held, venture backed company.  (www.broadsoft.com)

Catapult Communications delivers comprehensive telecom test systems that
enable testing of both established networks and emerging technologies
such as Voice over IP and 3rd Generation Cellular.  Offering
multi-protocol, multi-user capabilities in a single solution, Catapult
helps manufacturers of Gateways, Gatekeepers, MCUs and SIP terminal
equipment ensure interoperability in today's converging markets.

Delta's Network Systems group, specializing in the development of
conferencing and VoIP multi-protocol test equipment, has provided audio,
video and data protocol analyzers since 1992.  Delta is committed to
providing cost effective protocol analyzers for new standards as they
develop.  We also recognize that no standard product can meet the needs
of all users, so we work with our customers to provide customized
solutions.  Delta also manufactures application specific audio and video
compression products and systems.  Visit us at
www.delta-info.com/products/vt320.

dynamicsoft Inc.  delivers connection management and end-to-end server
solutions to service providers and communications equipment
manufacturers, enabling the scalable, interoperable and immediate
deployment of applications and services for converged voice/data
networks.  Visit dynamicsoft at www.dynamicsoft.com.  dynamicsoft is
funded byComVentures (www.comven.com) and VantagePoint Venture Partners
(www.vpvp.com), two world class venture capital firms investing in
technologies.

Telecommunications Technology Department at Helsinki University is
interested in the technology, engineering, information and enterprise
aspects of the functional areas of communications services and switching
such as signaling in telecommunications networks, routing in circuit and
packet switched networks including Internet routing protocols,
interworking of networks and services, and telecommunications product
development.  Recent research has been concentrated on IP switching and
Voice over IP.  For further information http://keskus.hut.fi/engl.shtml
or contact with Jose Costa Requena at
http://keskus.hut.fi/tutkimus/ipana/pers/jose.shtml.

Indigo Software, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is leading the way
in Internet-speaking telephony solutions.  Designing and providing
cutting-edge solutions for ISPs and operators worldwide, Indigo Software
is the European innovator in Java-based software for the worldwide
Internet telephony market.  Supported by major industry players, Indigo
software is a young, forward-looking, venture-backed company.

Mitel (NYSE:  MLT; TSE:  MLT) is a growing global provider of converging
voice and data systems and applications, and specialty semiconductors
for the communications industry.  The company has revenues of more than
CDN $1.3 billion and employs approximately 6,000 people worldwide.

A pioneer in Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, NetSpeak Corporation
(NASDAQ:  NSPK) is a leading developer and marketer of advanced
telephony solutions for IP networks.  NetSpeak solutions are powered by
products that have been strategically designed to meet the rapidly
evolving business needs of its customers.  Through a
protocol-independent software architecture, NetSpeak products deliver
efficient management of network resources and enable cost-effective
introduction of new VoIP applications.

OZ.COMTM is a pioneer in the advancement and development of scalable,
interactive real-time communications products and solutions.  The
company?s mission is to bring "people above networksTM" and develop
technology that integrates the Internet, traditional wireline and
wireless communications services.  With corporate headquarters in Boston
and European offices in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Stockholm, Sweden,
OZ.COM has over 80 employees and can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.oz.com/.

Pingtel is fostering a voice services and applications renaissance with
the world's first intelligent voice-over-IP telephone for service
providers and enterprises.  As the delivery platform for next-generation
IP PBX systems and virtual IP PBX services, it not only makes today's
voice features much easier to use, but enables a whole new collection of
valuable, personalized voice services and applications.  A
venture-backed start-up, Pingtel is located near Boston, in Woburn, MA,
and can also be found at www.pingtel.com.

RADCOM specializes in innovative, packet telephony solutions for
providers of integrated voice, data & Internet products and services. 
Its line of integrated WAN/FastLAN analyzers, which supports over 350
voice, data and cellular protocols, provide an ideal solution for
testing VoATM, VoFR as well as VoIP.  RADCOM's test solution suites are
used in the development and manufacturing of network equipment; the
installation of networks; and the ongoing maintenance of operational
networks to facilitate real-time identification, diagnosis, isolation
and resolution of network problems.  RADCOM's sales network includes
over 50 distributors in 35 countries worldwide and over 14
manufacturer's representatives across North America. 
(www.radcom-inc.com)

RaveTel is one of the first providers of presence-aware communications
applications for converged networks.  The company is a newly-formed
spin-off from the E*Club project at Carnegie-Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, PA.  For more information, visit RaveTel at
http://sip.ini.cmu.edu.

Telogy Networks, a Texas Instruments Company, is the leading provider of
embedded communications software to global equipment manufacturers. 
Telogy's Golden GatewayR software enables its customers to develop
connected products that send real-time voice, fax and data over packet
networks (such as Internet/Intranet, Frame Relay, and ATM).  As one of
the few embedded software companies with both microprocessor and DSP
expertise, Telogy Networks offers its customers truly comprehensive
product solutions.  Telogy's products are in use by virtually every
communications equipment manufacturer, including Cisco Systems, 3COM,
Nortel Networks, Motorola and many others throughout the world.  Company
news and product information are available at http://www.telogy.com.

Vovida Networks, a founding member of the International Softswitch
Consortium, is a Linux-based communications infrastructure company and
the global pioneer of open source telephony.  Vovida is a global
provider of communications software products that scale from silicon to
systems and enable advanced telephony features, applications and
services on packet-switched networks.  In addition, Linux-based, open
source implementations of MGCP, RTP, H.323 Annex F and SIP are freely
available on our web site:  www.vovida.com.

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For more information, please contact:
Barbara Boyle
Marketing Communications Manager
972-583-5481