Cirilium to Demonstrate Interoperability with Cisco Systems At VON Spring 2000.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2000

Cirilium Corp., a recently formed Internet Protocol (IP) telephony joint venture between Hypercom Corp. (NYSE:HYC) and Inter-Tel Inc. (NASDAQ:INTL), is showcasing interoperability of its IP Telephony solution, Power-Suite, with Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) at this week's Voice on the Net (VON) 2000 show in San Jose, Calif.

"In order for the IP telephony industry to achieve its much hyped potential, interoperability among products is a must," said Cirilium's President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Parise. "Cirilium's goal is to be interoperable with as many third-party vendor products as possible.

"We are meeting the rapidly changing needs of our customers by providing the flexibility to mix and match interoperable, standards-based gateways and gatekeepers. Showcasing our interoperability with Cisco is the first step in this ongoing process."

Cirilium has seen that carriers, service providers and ultimately enterprises are demanding H.323 products that allow them to deploy advanced VoIP services. With interoperable products, customers are realizing the flexibility to mix and match interoperable, standards-based devices including gateways, gatekeepers, call agents, IVR, and end-user devices.

Cirilium's H.323 Media Gateways are now interoperable with Cisco's gateways, processing IP telephony calls originating on a Cirilium system and terminating through a Cisco gateway, or vice versa.

What will this mean for the industry? Interoperability of H.323 devices is crucial for creating the foundation that will permit general accessibility to IP telephony, regardless of manufacturer. With this foundation in place, businesses can provide worldwide advanced IP telephony services such as unified messaging, soft-phone, touch-to-talk, web-push and follow-me services that are taking VoIP to the next generation of communications.

During VON, Cirilium will be demonstrating this interoperability as well as Power-Suite, its end-to-end IP Telephony solution for service providers and enterprises. Power-Suite features:

-- Evolution of gateway, gatekeeper and softswitch

technologies

-- Applications that will drive adoption of IP Telephony

-- Achievement of "five nines" (99.999 percent) reliability

-- Improvement of billing, clearinghouse and other

solution components

Cirilium's IP telephony approach focuses on these two areas:

-- End-to-end solutions: Cirilium's Power-Suite offers the

most comprehensive, scalable infrastructure solution for

new IP telephony carriers and enterprises, providing

everything from IP gateways and H.323-compliant gatekeeper

technology, to call processing software and other back-end

functions. A fully integrated solution, Cirilium's

offerings encompass SS7, billing, clearinghouse services,

e-commerce solutions for IP telephony and more.

-- Applications: Cirilium focuses on the applications that

will drive mass adoption of IP Telephony solutions

worldwide. From fully integrated calling card platforms,

credit card acceptance and advanced Computer Telephony

including unified messaging, softphone, touch-to-talk and

web push applications, Cirilium is developing the

technology its customers need to increase their

competitive advantages.

About VON

Hosted by pulver.com, Voice-on-the-Net conferences focus on the convergence of the Internet and Telecom Industries. VON Spring 2000 takes place March 27-30 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose.

About Cirilium Corp.

Cirilium provides turnkey service creation solutions to service providers and enterprises offering Internet Protocol-based telephony. Based in Phoenix, Cirilium is a privately held company founded and owned by Hypercom Corp. and Inter-Tel Inc.

Fusing the resources of its parents, Cirilium represents one of the largest focused IP Telephony infrastructure providers worldwide with a presence in more than 80 countries.