Competitive Telecom Company Selects sentitO's New End Office -NEO- to Develop New Revenue and Expand Geographic Service Capacity.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 2003

NEO Enables Bundled Voice, Digital Subscriber Line and Long Distance Services for the First Time

sentitO Networks, the leader in end office softswitching, announced today that Wisconsin-based Merrimac Communications has selected sentitO's New End Office (NEO), to enhance its current dial-up and cable services and offer new bundled services for the first time to its 14,000 residential customers. The new services will expand Merrimac's current capability as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Cable Television (CATV) provider to include functioning as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). The new bundled services include voice, digital subscriber line (DSL) and long distance services.

The centerpiece of the New End Office, the NEO Services Switch (NSS), directly terminates V.92 dial-up modem traffic, thereby eliminating the need for external RAS equipment. The NSS manages and optimizes dial-up sessions, while positioning Merrimac to offer local and long distance voice services throughout its subscriber base. Merrimac is a snapshot into America's dial-up Internet connection picture, as approximately 80 percent of the 168 million Internet users in the United States still use dial-up connections.

The NEO is the first softswitching platform truly designed for Internet Protocol (IP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Yet it also easily bridges legacy telecommunications network components with Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS), the compression technique GR-303, Inter-Machine Trunk (IMT), Primary Rate Interface (PRI), and Channel Associated Signaling (CAS) interfaces. This is especially important to the rural telecommunications market, where a majority of customers only have access to analog phone lines and therefore use dial-up modems as the main gateway to the Internet.

"In addition to lowering our cost basis, sentitO's NEO allows Merrimac to expand its services geographically and also offer new bundled services for the first time," said Bart Olson, president of Merrimac Communications. "We think sentitO's NEO will enable us to reduce our overall costs by 50 percent."

"The NEO enables Merrimac to be more competitive by reducing its capital expenditure costs and by offering more services to a wider customer base," said Terry Wolters, president and CEO of sentitO Networks. "Merrimac's implementation of sentitO's NEO sets it apart from its competitors as a visionary in the telecommunications market."

sentitO Networks is the leader in end office softswitching. End office softswitching allows carriers to expand the breadth of service offerings, including Voice over IP and SIP-based services, while reducing the cost of delivering existing subscriber services. In addition, end office softswitching enhances the reliability, scalability and regulatory compliance service providers need to provide converged services and connectivity directly to residential and enterprise subscribers.

About sentitO Networks

sentitO Networks is the leading provider of standards-based, end office softswitching solutions for global telecommunications service providers. sentitO is a privately held company with headquarters in Rockville, Md. and sales and development offices in Dallas, Texas and Westford, Mass. The company has received funding from leading service providers and VC firms, including TELUS Ventures, Core Capital Partners, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds, Technology Venture Partners, Kodiak Venture Partners and Inflection Point Ventures. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.sentito.com.