PingTone Releases First Real-Time IP Telephony Call Quality System CADIUS System Assures Business Class Call Quality Across IP Networks.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 2003

PingTone Communications, a provider of managed Internet Protocol (IP) dial tone service to corporations and business users worldwide, today announced that it has further strengthened its service with a proactive call quality monitoring system called Call Assurance Design Integrated User Support (CADIUS(TM)). The CADIUS system is a patent-pending technology that is the result of a pioneering design team and four years of development and testing in real-world deployments.

The CADIUS system's important advancement in IP voice quality is that a caller's experience, or quality of call, is evaluated proactively by using information contained in the call itself. Information is derived from the voice stream of the call and applied to an algorithmic process that in turn generates a "score" for that call. If the call's score is outside PingTone predetermined acceptable limits, proactive measures can be taken to improve call quality before any loss of performance is detected by a listener.

"The CADIUS system's level of precision is such that in the majority of cases callers are not able to hear the deviations in performance that trigger the system's proactive measures," said PingTone's president and CEO Jerry Cady. "And, beyond this, CADIUS is completely non-intrusive - meaning no end user equipment or involvement is required."

CADIUS pulls information from the real-time transport protocol (RTP) information packet of the call and uses this information to score calls. This approach results in an environment where every single call is measured, actual caller experience is evaluated and reported, and management information is presented in near real-time. By measuring actual calls from end-to-end, the CADIUS system effectively ensures the same type of experience that callers have come to expect from business voice service.

Cady continued, "Replicating what the customer is actually hearing is the cornerstone for maintaining the high level of service that customers expect today. With CADIUS it is now possible to deliver the call's digital information in a way that mimics what the human ear processes. While there are existing accurate methods such as PSQM and PESQ to measure some elements of IP call quality, those methods relate only to network set-up and network failure. This approach leaves providers resorting to reactive management based on customer complaint. With PingTone's CADIUS system, those problems are over."

More information about the CADIUS system can be requested by calling PingTone Communications at 703-621-6161.

About PingTone

PingTone Communications, Inc., provides managed IP dial tone service to corporations and business users worldwide. In close cooperation with Cisco, the largest provider of IP phone technology worldwide, PingTone gives customers traditional voice quality plus all the built-in capabilities of IP dial tone service - unified messaging, remote employee access, disaster recovery, flat-priced local and long distance calling, high-speed Internet connectivity, and end-to-end service management. The company is headquartered in Northern Virginia. For more information, please visit http://www.pingtone.com or http://www.Cisco.com/go/pingtone.