CommWorks, Ki Consulting Team to Develop Advanced SIP-Based Applications for Telecommunications Service Providers.

Business/Technology Editors

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. & STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 2002

CommWorks, a 3Com company (NASDAQ: COMS) and a leader in developing softswitch-based networks, and Ki Consulting, a leading provider of system integration services, announced today they are collaborating to develop new high-value, commercially viable communications services based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

The joint efforts will integrate key elements of CommWorks' Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and softswitch product lines with Ki Consulting's extensive portfolio of SIP applications and rich tradition of system integration capabilities for Post, Telegraph and Telephone administrations (PTTs) and other service providers.

Developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), SIP is a highly scalable, open standard that integrates easily with IP telephony equipment and applications. Because it is a text-based protocol based on the IP architecture of other existing popular protocols like the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), SIP simplifies interoperability and speeds development and deployment of new services.

"Like CommWorks, Ki Consulting is actively engaged in promoting the advantages of SIP within the worldwide telecommunications industry," said Magnus Hartmann, project manager at Ki Consulting. "SIP offers an attractive, practical solution to the challenges faced by service providers - how to reduce operating costs and introduce new revenue-generating services for their customers."

"SIP possesses the ability to become a great catalyst for service innovation - such as unified messaging, personalized call treatments, Internet-based call centers, and IP Centrex - on top of its call-handling capabilities," said Joseph Marmion, vice president, sales, CommWorks Europe, Middle East and Africa. "We share with partners like Ki Consulting a commitment to translating technology into products, applications and services that meet real world demands and deliver a quantifiable business advantage."

Ki Consulting is the newest member of the CommWorks Community of Partners. Participants in the program collaborate to place advanced technology in the hands of service provider customers around the world. Through mutual relationships with key vendors, CommWorks offers its customers a range of solutions no single vendor could provide.

CommWorks' support for SIP is present throughout its carrier-class, three-tier architecture of media gateways, softswitch elements for signaling and call control and network management and back-end servers interconnected by open standards-based protocols.

The first tier, featuring the Total Control(R) 1000 and Total Control 2000 platforms, performs media gateway functions to integrate multiple traffic types and accommodate disparate networks. The CommWorks(R) Softswitch works with these multi-service access platforms to provide end-to-end, carrier-grade IP-based communications.

The softswitch operates in tiers two and three of the architecture. At tier two, it provides media control and management, session control functions and multi-protocol PSTN/IP signaling. At tier three, the softswitch is responsible for critical network services, including accounting, authentication and rating, billing support, directory mapping, and Web provisioning.

About Ki Consulting

Ki Consulting & Solutions AB is one of Sweden's biggest telecoms and IT consultancy companies with 1,200 employees in five locations up and down the country: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Kalmar and Sundsvall. Ki Consulting offers total telecoms/IT solutions with integration as its core business. By integrating new solutions with previous investments, efficiency gains can be obtained. The company offers solutions for application management, ASP, CRM, e-Business, Integration, Mobility and the TIME sector. Ki Consulting is part of the Telefos group whose parent company Telefos AB is 51 percent owned by Industri Kapital and 49 percent by Telia. See also www.kiconsulting.com

About CommWorks

CommWorks, a 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS) Company, supplies network service providers around the world with access infrastructures and IP services platforms that open new business opportunities and help them establish unique positions in a competitive marketplace. With flexible multi-service hardware platforms and modular software components, the comprehensive CommWorks architecture makes it possible for service providers to integrate their existing infrastructures with innovative technologies to deliver an array of next-generation IP-based enhanced services to their customers. For further information, visit www.commworks.com

About 3Com Corporation

3Com is the global leader in functionally-rich, easy-to-use networking products that connect businesses to their employees, customers and suppliers -- anytime, anywhere. 3Com is also a leader in Internet protocol (IP) service platforms and access infrastructure for the network service provider market. In 1979, the company was founded by one of the inventors of Ethernet technology on which virtually all local area networks are based. Since then, 3Com has sold more than 340,000,000 Ethernet connections. 3Com has headquarters in Santa Clara, California. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

3Com, CommWorks and Total Control are registered trademarks and the CommWorks logo is a trademark of 3Com Corporation.