NTT-ME To Deliver NexTone's Unique, End-to-End Session Management Solutions to the Japanese Market.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- NexTone's Session Controller Product Family Provides Unmatched Scalability and Flexibility at the Core and Edge of the Network

NexTone(TM) Communications today announced that NTT-ME, a top-level systems integrator in Japan, is reselling NexTone's end-to-end session management solutions to its carrier, enterprise, and government customers. After examining competitive solutions, NTT-ME chose NexTone's Multiprotocol Signaling Switch (MSW) for the core and Multiprotocol Session Controllers (MSC) at the edge because of their ability to offer unmatched interoperability and interworking capabilities, as well as providing flexibility and rapid response to customer needs.

"As VoIP networks are rapidly spreading, successfully achieving secure and intelligent carrier to carrier and carrier to enterprise VoIP interconnection is a big challenge. The issue at the VoIP border is not only signaling interoperability and conversion, but also VoIP firewalling, call admission control, VoIP quality management as well as codec and DTMF transcoding. NexTone's solutions provide answers for all of these challenges today and enables NTT-ME to respond comprehensively and nimbly to the diverse needs of our customers' VoIP networks and applications," said Shuji Arima, senior vice president with NTT-ME. "Our customers include Tier 1 and 2 carriers, pre-paid calling card operators, large enterprise customers and government clients, and they run SIP, H.323 or a mixture of both protocols. NexTone's flexible platform configuration enables us to quickly and cost-effectively scale the solution up or down for a particular customer opportunity. In fact, NTT-ME and NexTone are already making significant inroads in the Japanese market; we are very excited to be working together."

NexTone's MSC and MSW products use FlexControl to deliver uniquely scalable and flexible session control solutions. FlexControl enables NTT-ME's customers to cost effectively route, manage and control voice and other real-time traffic over their Internet Protocol (IP) network. One component of FlexControl, FlexPeer, simplifies carrier interconnects, eliminates a variety of signaling problems (message formatting, timing and industry interpretation) and improves network address translation (NAT) and port address translation (PAT) via enhanced signaling and media routing and processing. Other FlexControl capabilities include FlexRoute and FlexPolicy, which enable NTT-ME customers to route and manage authorized traffic to optimum peering points, resulting in a more scalable network delivering improved call-completion rates.

"NexTone's end-to-end session controller product family is enabling NTT-ME to be the leader in VoIP implementation in Japan," said Raj Sharma, president of NexTone Communications. "NexTone's MSW and MSC products provide carrier-class scale and market-leading flexibility and interoperability, enabling NTT-ME to cost-effectively bring the benefits of end-to-end session management to a variety of Japanese carriers and enterprises."

About NTT -ME Corporation

Established in 1999, NTT-ME, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corp, offers customers' IT business solutions and network system integration services that excel in reliability and quality of service. NTT-ME's total solution encompasses consulting through to after-the-sale service. The XePhion is our next-generation, ultra high-speed, broadband IP network service being offered to the Japanese customers by utilizing the optical fiber technology.

NTT-ME offers customers an extensive portfolio of the ME Global WAVE branded leading-edge products, supported by a corporate philosophy that places major emphasis on support and maintenance of the customers' multimedia network and services.

--Multimedia Network System Department Website: http://nttiivs.ntt-me.co.jp/mmns/nextone/index.html

--E-Mail : [e-mail]

--NTT-ME Global Solution Headquarters ME Global WAVE Website: http://nttiivs.ntt-me.co.jp/

--NTT-ME Website: http://www.ntt-me.co.jp/

About NexTone Communications

NexTone Communications develops carrier-grade products that provide scalable control of real-time IP services, such as voice over IP (VoIP). NexTone solutions enable carriers, service providers and enterprises to securely, simply, and cost-effectively interconnect networks for end-to-end control and management of IP traffic. NexTone's real-time IP technology can dramatically reduce carrier capital expenditures while providing ongoing operational efficiencies, such as reduced interconnect turn-up time and simplified network operations. NexTone is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland USA with domestic and International sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.nextone.com.