Cisco, Intel, ITXC, and Lucent Demonstrate Next Stage of IP Telephony Interoperability at VON Conference; New Client to Gateway and Gatekeeper Interoperability to Enable Enhanced Services.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS EDITORS)--Sept. 28, 1999--

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), ITXC (NASDAQ:ITXC) and Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) today announced here that they are jointly demonstrating the first H.323v2 standards based VoIP interoperability with a new class of peripherals - PCs, personal digital assistants, mobile phones, personal gateways and other IP enabled appliances.

This interoperability will allow a new group of users to make high-quality and reliable voice calls over an IP telephony network.

In this demonstration, attendees at the conference are able to have a live voice conversation using Intel Internet Phone software (located in the Intel booth), and listen as the voice call goes through an ITXC network and is received by either a standard telephone connected to a Lucent MultiVoice(TM) for the MAX(TM) 6000 gateway (located in the Lucent booth 106) or connected to a Cisco 3620 Voice Gateway (located in the ITXC booth 329.)

The demonstration is based on recommendations developed by Intel, ITXC, Lucent and others and submitted to the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC). The recommendations extend the existing iNOW! profile for IP telephony interoperability, providing immediate connectivity to existing telephones for a whole new class of users and devices.

If accepted by the IMTC, the proposal offers customers purchasing and using any iNOW! compliant appliance or client the assurance that they could send calls over any network using any other iNOW! compatible products.

Cisco, Intel, ITXC, and Lucent are taking leadership roles in working together as part of the IMTC to provide this level of interoperability to the Internet telephony industry, which is key to its growth.

"We are pleased to be working with other industry leaders to provide interoperable New World telephony services with full access to the existing global telephone network," said Alistair Woodman, Director of Marketing for Packet Telephony at Cisco Systems. "This demonstration and the proposal to the IMTC show how quick solutions to real customer problems will accelerate the growth of IP telephony."

"Intel is committed to making the Internet-connected PC a high quality, easy-to-use voice device for new IP telephony applications," said Dwayne Canfield, Marketing Manager for IP Telephony in the Intel Architecture Labs. "Industry standards-based interoperability between connected PCs and IP telephony gateways is an important step to making those applications real."

"Client to phone communication is a valuable extension of interoperability for the end user" said Ed Hirschman, ITXC's Director of New Business Development. "The IMTC iNOW! Terminal Profile will give end-users and service providers standards-based freedom of choice when deciding on which clients to use and deploy. We are pleased that Intel has joined in this effort to accelerate the adoption of iNOW! and client to phone solutions, to the benefit of callers worldwide."

"Lucent, who is chairing the iNOW! Testing SIG of the IMTC and was one of the original founders of the iNOW! profile, is pleased to join with Cisco, Intel and ITXC in demonstrating the next stage of IP telephony interoperability," said Lov Kher, general manager, VoIP Access Networks for Lucent Technologies. "Now users of common devices such as mobile phones and PDAs will be able to make interoperable VoIP calls across the network in real-time," said Kher.

Demo Details

This demo is an early implementation of a set of recommendations contained in the draft iNOW! terminal profile developed by Intel, ITXC, Lucent and others. It is currently under discussion within the IMTC iNOW! activity group. The draft outlines methods for making hardware and software peripherals and clients interoperable with any iNOW! compliant gatekeepers and gateways.

If accepted by the IMTC and international standards bodies, the new proposal could give providers who plan to sell the new enhanced services, an instant global footprint of telephones, gateways and compliant gatekeepers. This footprint would reach well beyond the circle of purchasers of the single new device or service that they are developing.

The recommendations submitted to the IMTC are based on the ratified H.323 Simple End-Point Terminal (SET) Annex, and provide a real-world framework for PC clients, PDAs and appliances to speak to gateways and gatekeepers from all industry vendors.

The recommendations have been actively discussed in the IMTC iNOW! Terminal Special Interest Group (SIG). Once approved by the iNOW! Activity Group, the recommendation will be submitted as a profile to IMTC and the standards bodies for consideration. (For more information on the proposed profile, please review the document on www.imtc.org.)

About Cisco Systems:

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at http/www.cisco.com.

About Intel Corporation:

Intel Corporation, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

About ITXC Corp:

ITXC Corp(TM) is a leading Internet telephony wholesale carrier. The company's global affiliate network - ITXC.net consists of international carriers, ISPs and newly formed Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) with 118 PoPs in 73 cities and 35 countries.

ITXC sells services to prepaid calling card companies, call back companies, and traditional telephone companies. WWeXchange(SM) Service provides wholesale call completion to any phone in the world using a combination of Internet telephony and traditional PSTN.

Its Borderless800(SM) product currently offers non-U.S. carrier affiliates no cost toll free access to 800 numbers in the US. For more information, please refer to www.itxc.com.

About Lucent Technologies:

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com .

MultiVoice and MAX are trademarks of Lucent Technologies. ITXC Corp(TM) is a trademark of ITXC Corp. iNOW! is a trademark of the IMTC. Cisco, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.