Amplify.net Unveils Model for Delivery of 'Last Mile' Services Over Broadband Networks; Technology Platform Addresses Quality of Service and Subscriber Service Management Challenges.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 2000

Amplify.net (www.amplifynet.com), a Silicon Valley company specializing in broadband service infrastructure, today unveiled a new "IP Service Enabled" technology platform with true quality of service and subscriber service management functions centered around the company's IP Service Engine. Designed specifically to be easily embedded in various broadband network equipment, the technology enables the "last mile" delivery and management of next-generation services over DSL, cable and wireless networks. The company's technology is available to broadband service providers through its OEM partnerships with broadband equipment manufacturers.

Solving Today's "Last Mile" Bottleneck

True quality of service is critical to meeting growing subscriber demand and essential to delivering convergent data, voice and video broadband services. Today's problematic access bottleneck is partly caused by existing Internet infrastructure that lacks a comprehensive "last mile" solution capable of managing the dynamic traffic flows and ensuring the quality of these services. The lack of subscriber self-registration, authentication and auto-provisioning management functions further exacerbates the long delays in pent-up demands by new subscribers. ATM equipment provides some defined QoS capabilities but typically does not reach beyond the customer premise demarcation point and can practically promise only "best effort" capabilities for the delivery of data services in presence of voice and video.

IP Service Engine -- The Foundation for True Subscriber Quality of Service

Amplify.net's IP Service Engine overcomes the limitations of priority-based QoS schemes by providing true IP-based, subscriber-oriented quality of service technology developed around industry standards, capable of guaranteeing the delivery quality of multiple, simultaneous sessions for voice, video as well as data for each subscriber, based on pre- or dynamically-defined policy-based service level agreements (SLAs).

Other critical benefits enabled by Amplify's IP Service Engine include:

-- Eliminating bottlenecks by monitoring traffic through the broadband pipe,
identifying/containing abusive users while managing hierarchical bandwidth
allocation

-- Reducing operating costs by optimizing uplink bandwidth usage in multipoint
environments such as multi-tenant unit buildings (MTUs)

Subscriber Service Management -- A Critical Component

As a critical part of its "IP Service Enabled" Technology Platform, Amplify's subscriber service management covers subscriber self-registration and service selection, automatic service activation and provisioning, policy and SLA administration, capacity management and support for usage-based billing. It can operate as a middleware solution that can be integrated with an existing operating support system (OSS) addressing broader management functions, or as a complete standalone subscriber service management system.

Designed to be Easily Embedded

Amplify.net's "IP Service Enabled" Technology Platform, designed around its IP Service Engine, is designed to be highly scalable and adaptable as an embedded core technology component for a variety of broadband equipment, from customer premise equipment (CPE), cable and wireless head-end's to DSL concentrators. It provides IP intelligence all the way to the edge of the network in a distributed network architectural environment. It requires limited memory, low processor overhead and is in complete compliance with TCP/IP protocol standards.

[pilcrow (paragraph sign)] "Our mission is to enable the simultaneous delivery of emerging new voice and video services by guaranteeing service quality to each subscriber's desktop," said Pauline Lo Alker, president and CEO of Amplify.net. "With true subscriber quality of service accompanied by a comprehensive suite of auto-provisioning, subscriber service management and dynamic capacity management functions, our 'IP-Service Enabled' Technology Platform sets a standard for the design of next-generation broadband network equipment."

The company is building partnerships with a diverse group of equipment providers, including customer premise, head-end and DSLAM manufacturers such as 3COM, Interspeed, WaveRider, and Wi-LAN in order to proliferate its technology across "last mile" broadband networks.

"Amplify.net is focusing on providing solutions that overcome the key obstacles that network providers face," said Didier Cop, Amplify.net's vice president of marketing. "By integrating Amplify.net's technology in their products, Equipment Manufacturers can bring concrete solutions that help service providers to effectively deploy their services and provide a high level of customer satisfaction."

About Amplify.net, Inc. (http://www.amplifynet.com/)

Amplify.net is a broadband service quality and management solutions company that offers advanced bandwidth management and IP quality of service technologies and subscriber service management systems for DSL, cable and wireless networks. Amplify.net's technology boosts the revenue and profitability of service providers, enabling them to deliver and guarantee "last mile" quality of value-added IP services such as Voice over IP, Video and Audio on Demand and data-rich streaming content. Amplify.net licenses its patented technology to broadband equipment manufacturers as an "open system" IP Service Engine that provides the foundation for next generation products.