CommuniGate Systems Announces VoIP Solution for Carriers and Enterprises with the Launch of CommuniGate Pro v5.0

• Monday, 31 October 2005

The New Internet Communications Server for Carrier-class Voice, Email, and Collaboration Services

London (UK) October 31, 2005 – CommuniGate Systems, the leader in scalable carrier-class Internet Communications solutions, today announced CommuniGate Pro v5.0, the single solution for messaging, collaboration, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Voice applications have been built into the industry-unique CommuniGate Pro Dynamic Cluster, delivering an all-active, clustered “SIP Farm” with the capacity to host thousands of domains and many millions of subscribers with 99.999% uptime.

"As VoIP will increasingly be deployed by large enterprises and by the major carriers, the latter deploying tens of millions of subscribers, clustered systems like CommuniGate Pro's Dynamic Cluster and SIP Farm are going to be critical elements for scalable Internet communications", said Michael Osterman, principal, Osterman Research, Inc. "In addition, CommuniGate Systems' strong push for open standards and interoperability provides leadership that the industry should follow."

New VoIP applications in CommuniGate Pro v5.0 include: TeleConference Server, Auto-Attendant/IVR, Call Queuing/Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Voicemail and Self-Service, with easily extendible VoIP applications included and a powerful voice applications development platform. The VoIP infrastructure includes a complete solution for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based Voice over IP, CDR integration for billing, click to call from Outlook and Webmail, SIP Registrar and Proxy for all users and an advanced SIP infrastructure with session border control for NAT traversal which keeps all users connected regardless of location.

“The entire system is based on the same consolidated identity management, security foundation, and active clustering which makes CommuniGate Pro reliable and easy-to-administer,” said Thom O’Connor, Director, Product Architecture of CommuniGate Systems. “CommuniGate Pro 5.0 approaches VoIP as a standards-based, Internet-ready protocol designed to enable end-to-end Internet Communications for all users, just as we demand from email. It is inevitable that the closed-network model we are seeing in the market today for IM and VoIP will make way for standards-based interoperability. With CommuniGate Pro, all users can use the same address for email, IM, voice, and video.”

VoIP applications for CommuniGate Pro v5.0 include:

• TeleConference Server- eliminates the need to outsource multi-party conferencing, and allow users to create and host conferences

• Auto-Attendant (IVR)- interactive menu systems which can be personalized for every domain and even every account on a system

• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)- sophisticated call queuing for call centers

• Voicemail and Self-Service- voicemail delivered to the inbox, forwarded to your mobile device, or be automatically notified by IM when voice mail arrives

• CommuniGate Programming Language (CG/PL) development platform-an open, well-documented language for developing quick and powerful voice applications or to extend the applications provided by default within the product. CommuniGate Pro now can be used as a full clustered application server with extensibility and integration “touch points” with internal applications like IM, email, and voice, or externally to other data and applications via WebDAV, SOAP/.NET, VoiceXML, for unlimited possibilities.

New VoIP infrastructure for CommuniGate Pro v5.0 includes:

• “SIP Farm”- unique all-active SIP clustering with the ability to “just add nodes” to grow capacity

• CDR records and API for billing – call detail record logging and integration with billing systems

• SBC – session border controller functionality is handled by CommuniGate Pro, including both near-end and far-end NAT traversal and media proxies

• “SIP Workaround Features”- the ability to configure workarounds at runtime for non-standard SIP softswitches and clients, including support for Microsoft SIP clients

“The Internet is constantly evolving into the most widely used communications backbone, and users now demand sophisticated Internet Communications including instant messaging, email, and Voice over IP,” said Vladimir Butenko, CEO of CommuniGate Systems. “We developed CommuniGate Pro 5.0 to bring a simple and reliable open solution to complex environments, accommodating multiple platforms with a scalable architecture to serve the largest carriers as they deploy VoIP services to their subscriber base.”
CommuniGate Pro v5.0, based on open SIP standards, allows users a choice of clients – IP phones, soft clients, traditional telephony, mobile devices, browsers, and IM agents – all through the same access and login. Traditional telephone numbers will still be used through PSTN connectivity or ENUM. CommuniGate Pro 5.0 can route to multiple simultaneous gateways, including IP-to-PSTN and IP-to-IP, PSTN-to-IP, and even PSTN-to-PSTN between switches using SIP. Ultimately, with CommuniGate Pro 5.0 all users can choose their own choice of client for email, collaboration, and voice and still interoperate with one another.
“CommuniGate Pro 5.0 with wide support of SIP protocol software and hardware, integrated presence and instant messaging as well as clustering capabilities put CommuniGate Systems well ahead of competing companies,” said Paul Emond, President, Versature Corporation. “CommuniGate Pro 5.0 immediately blew us away with its feature-rich, stable and extremely configurable solution allowing us to move further, faster, than any other product in the domain. CommuniGate Systems has an impressive vision for real business use of VoIP technology and they have gone far beyond just making it work".

CommuniGate Pro is recognized as the clear leader in providing carriers with rich packaged features that increase the user-base value potential and subscriber retention. The all-active dynamic clustering provides multi-million user sites 99.999% uptime and a rolling update capability that no other platform is able to maintain. CommuniGate Pro is the first real-time Internet Communications server to utilize multiple operating systems in the same cluster, thus providing carriers flexibility to mix and match legacy or new architectures while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO).
Pricing and Availability
Current CommuniGate Pro customers in their maintenance period with full CGP 4.3 licenses will be able to upgrade to this new version at no charge. Other customers using previous versions of CommuniGate Pro and out of maintenance or without full licenses can upgrade to the newest version at 35% of the list price. The new version will start for a limited introductory period at $699 for the single server 25-user pack, with Dynamic Clusters ranging from 500 users scaling to millions of subscribers. Upgrade options are also available. CommuniGate Pro is available for purchase through more than 175 partners worldwide. CommuniGate Pro v5.0 trials are available for download now at: www.communigate.com.

About CommuniGate Systems
Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate Systems (CGS) develops carrier-class Internet Communications software for broadband & mobile service providers, enterprises, universities and OEM partners worldwide. Over 115 million end users including 40 million voice customers rely upon CGS products for their voice and data communication needs. CommuniGate Systems maintains the highest customer satisfaction level in the industry and has won more awards than any other Internet Communications solution. CGS provides unsurpassed scalability and an expansive feature set all with unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime. CGS has over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.

For more information please contact:

Fiona Keys or James Cooper at Ascendant Communications
E-mail: fkeys@ascendcomms.net / jcooper@ascendcomms.net
Tel: 07710 759149 or 07949 143988

This press release was distributed via SourceWire, a service from Daryl Willcox Publishing, on behalf of Ascendant Communications. For more information visit http://www.dwpub.com/pressreleasewires