Citynet and I-55 Added to Growing List of Competitive Service Providers That Have Chosen Taqua's Next-Generation Telephony Product Offerings.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2003

Taqua(R), Inc., a leading provider of next-generation voice switching systems and technologies, today announced that I-55 Telecommunications and Citynet have chosen Taqua to be their supplier of next-generation Class 5 softswitching solutions. Citynet has purchased three Taqua iX7000(TM) next-generation Class 5 softswitches and three Courier(TM) voice mail systems. I-55 has purchased both the iX7000 and Taqua's Meritus(TM) hosted business services software.

Citynet is an integrated communications provider offering data, Internet, voice and enterprise wide solutions to the business and residential community. Citynet is delivering service in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Tri-Cities, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Chicago, and West Virginia. According to James Martin, president and chief executive officer at Citynet, the decision to use Taqua's iX7000 for Citynet's first facilities-based voice service offering was fundamentally centered around economics. "Citynet is undergoing strong growth, both organically and through acquisitions. Although we have acquired some legacy Lucent 5Es as part of this growth, it was more economical for Citynet to use Taqua's iX7000 as our facilities-based switch. While the iX7000 provides the full Class 5 feature set you would expect, the iX7000 also has a smooth migration path for voice over packet offerings by simply inserting a blade into the switch. And by combining Taqua's Courier voice mail system with each of the three switches, Citynet is able to provide a robust, easy to use voice mail offering to our residential and business subscribers."

I-55, a leading Internet service provider for business and residential users throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, recently purchased the iX7000 and Meritus business services software combination to expand their CLEC service offering to include voice services. "We chose the iX7000 because it's the most economic next-generation telephony switch on the market, while the addition of Meritus was a natural decision for I-55 because it allows us to introduce enhanced services that are truly differentiated from anything our target business customers have seen," explained Gene Groce, chief operating officer for I-55 Telecommunications. "Since the user doesn't need a proprietary phone to use these enhanced Meritus business features, it's easy for us to transition customers to our full Internet and voice offering."

"There has never been a better time in the history of telecommunications for carriers to cost effectively deliver a reliable, facilities-based voice service offering," said Gary Brown, executive vice president of sales for Taqua, Inc. "The CLEC industry has been growing stronger all year, and more and more of these companies are changing their business models to take advantage of the full-featured capabilities of Taqua's next-generation Class 5 softswitch and the enhanced residential and business services enabled through Taqua's EFX(TM) application server."

The iX7000(TM) (formerly branded the OCX) is the industry's marketshare-leading Class 5 packet softswitch. The iX7000 is based on a switch-on-a-card design, through which each interface card (or "circuit pack") performs all of the functions required of a Class 5 switch. Each card provides all the dedicated resources for call processing, service logic, switch fabric, media processing, and signaling. By eliminating common equipment, the iX7000 greatly improves service margins and gives carriers pinpoint control over network costs. A fully functional system can be deployed with a single card, and additional expansion cards can be added with market growth.

Courier(TM) Voice Mail can be a stand-alone dedicated voice mail system, or used in conjunction with Meritus. A cost-effective voice mail system, Courier allows users to scale from as few as 100 mailboxes to thousands of mailboxes. Courier can be customized to meet the requirements of Centrex, small business, and residential subscribers offering advanced business features including Automated Attendant, after hours announcements, and company level mail boxes. Courier Administrator provides a Web-based GUI allowing you to add, delete and change subscriber mailbox information within a company. You can also use it to view usage reports on subscriber mailboxes.

Meritus provides enhanced voice features for businesses by using plain old telephone service (POTS), delivering features similar to a key system or PBX without having expensive equipment or proprietary terminals at the customer premise. This allows telephony carriers to provide new revenue generating services that can differentiate the solutions they are selling to business customers. Meritus provides business group logic, call control, feature activation, and subscriber management, and allows the end user customer to set up business groups that define features for the group of subscribers. Courier and Meritus reside on Taqua's EFX(TM) (Enhanced Feature Exchange) application server.

About Taqua, Inc.

Founded in 1998, Taqua is the market share leader in next-generation telephony systems and technologies. The Company focuses on improving local (ILEC) and competitive (CLEC) exchange carrier deployment and operational costs, while delivering new and differentiated revenue generating broadband services. Taqua offers a complete line of circuit and IP voice switching products and services, including full-featured next-generation packet Class 5 softswitches, intelligent line access gateways, application servers, line and trunk testing systems, and an element management system. In addition, the Company offers a full suite of professional services including network design and capacity planning, as well as installation and cutover services.

Taqua and OCX are a registered trademarks, and iX7000, Meritus, Courier, and EFX are trademarks of Taqua, Inc.