Distributel Licenses Data Connection Messaging and Conferencing Technology.

LONDON & OTTAWA -- Distributel, a Canadian provider of competitive telecommunications services, and Data Connection, a leading supplier of messaging and collaboration/conferencing technology, announced that Distributel has licensed both Data Connection's MailNGen platform for voicemail, email, fax and unified messaging and also Data Connection's MeetingServer platform for integrated audio/video/web conferencing. This gives Distributel a single source for two key services, both of which are becoming increasingly important differentiators in the hugely competitive telecommunications market.

"Distributel is a very innovative carrier, pushing hard into the incumbent's market share", said Graeme MacArthur, GM of Data Connection's Internet Applications Division. "We are extremely pleased to be working with them to deliver these new features into their markets."

MailNGen offers email, voicemail and fax, all through a single inbox. This allows Distributel to offer a full unified messaging service to customers, but also to offer different levels of service to different user groups. The system runs entirely on commodity hardware, making it very cost effective and allowing Distributel to quickly and cheaply take advantage of future improvements in server technology. The server farm architecture of MailNGen naturally provides 99.999% availability for every subscriber, and also low-cost scalability as subscribers are added.

"We were extremely impressed by the quality of the Data Connection products, both in terms of fundamental build quality and architecture", said Philippe Desjardins, Distributel's Director - Product Management. "We investigated a number of solutions, and none of them could come close to Data Connection in offering us a very close relationship, a complete roadmap and a reliable product without deployment headaches. We have been stunned by the high level of support and assistance we have received from them."

In addition to offering messaging services through MailNGen, Distributel will deploy Data Connection's MeetingServer platform to offer full audio/video/data conferencing. MeetingServer provides a complete set of data and video conferencing features through an entirely web-based GUI, avoiding large downloads that are prone to failures. It is tightly integrated with the audio bridge that Distributel is using, allowing conference users to manage both the audio conference and the web conference through the same interface.

"There are many conferencing solutions available", said Philippe Desjardins, "but no other could offer the cost-effectiveness of MeetingServer, along with the features we need and the first-class support we get from Data Connection. Deploying the service in-house, rather than reselling service from a conferencing service provider, gives us complete control over the pricing, which in turn allows us to develop the best go-to-market strategy for our customers."

Using the Data Connection technology, Distributel is able to offer bilingual French and English versions of the GUIs and phone interfaces, as well as support both TDM and VoIP traffic.

About Distributel

In business since 1988, Distributel Communications is 100 percent Canadian owned and one of the pioneers of the competitive long-distance industry in Canada. Operating in Ontario and Quebec, Distributel provides Canadians with high-quality, competitively priced long-distance services and communications solutions while maintaining an extremely high standard of customer service. Distributel is poised to enter the VoIP market in the coming months and will continue to launch new products and services in 2005, as well as expand into new territories.

About Data Connection

Data Connection Limited (DCL) is the leading independent developer and supplier of email, voicemail and unified messaging solutions, as well as audio, video and data conferencing. Its MailNGen and MeetingServer platforms are widely deployed among tier one service providers across North America and Europe. These are in turn supported by its reliable and scalable directory, DC-Directory, which is used in some of the largest deployments in the world today. Data Connection also provides network protocol technology to OEMs, including SIP, H.248, MPLS, IP Routing, ATM and SNA. The company's MetaSwitch division supplies the industry's leading Class 5 Softswitch, with both integrated (Compact Softswitch) and distributed architecture options including call agent, feature server, media gateway and signaling gateway functionality. The MetaSwitch Class 5 Softswitch has been widely deployed among incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers, as well as operators of broadband wireless, cable and fiber networks.

Net profits have exceeded 20% of revenue every year since the company was founded in 1981. Customers include BT, Cisco, IBM, Lucent, Microsoft, SouthWestern Bell and Verizon. With over 300 employees, Data Connection is headquartered in London, UK with US offices in Alameda, CA, Boxborough, MA, Dallas, TX, and Reston, VA. For more information please see www.dataconnection.com.