3Com, Cisco, GRIC, iPass, and TransNexus agree to support the Open Settlement Protocol
ATLANTA, GA September 2, 1998 Industry leaders Cisco, 3Com Corporation, GRIC Communications, iPass and TransNexus have teamed up to promote inter-domain authentication, authorization and accounting standards for IP telephony through the Open Settlement Protocol (OSP). OSP allows a clearinghouse to provide call routing and authorization between carriers. In addition, OSP provides usage reporting through call detail records. Without OSP, there is no open standard solution to perform these functions. In addition to the overwhelming support of these industry leaders, OSP has been defined within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI) project TIPHON, chartered to establish global standards for Internet telephony. "The industry realizes that ubiquitous interconnection will drive market demand, adoption and growth of IP telephony products and services, and OSP is a critical step in realizing the full potential of IP telephony," says Stephen Thomas, ETSIs editor for this standard and chair of the Voice over IP Forum.
Major benefits of OSP include:
- Confidentiality of all information through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption
- Secure, mutual authentication of communicating parties
- Non-repudiation of all communications through digital signature technology
- Supports operation through existing firewalls
- Flexible and feature rich information exchange via eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
About Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networkingfor the Internet. athttp://www.cisco.com.About 3Com
3Com Corporation enables individuals and organizations worldwide to stay more connected by communicating and sharing information and resources anytime, anywhere. As one of the world's preeminent suppliers of data, voice andvideo communications technology, 3Com has delivered networking solutionsto more than 100 million customers worldwide. The company provides largeenterprise, small and medium enterprise, carriers and network serviceproviders, and consumers with comprehensive, innovative informationaccess products and system solutions for building intelligent, reliableand high performance local and wide area networks. For furtherinformation, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at http://www.3com.com orthe press site at http//www.3com.com/pressbox.About GRIC Communications, Inc.
GRIC Communications, Inc. is the leader in providing an integrated, global IP infrastructure for secure settlement, network management, roaming, fax and telephony services at competitive rates. The more than 350 worldwide telcos, PTTs and ISPs in the GRIC alliance deploy GRICs IP infrastructure to integrate traditional services with Internet telecommunications. Complex tasks performed on this platform include authentication, flexible routing, settlement, provisioning, billing, customer service and self-service automation. Privately held, GRIC Communications has offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe. For additional information, visit GRICs Web site at www.gric.com.About iPass Inc.
iPass, the "Access Anywhere" company, is the premier settlement and clearinghouse service that unlocks the power of the Internet backbone for low-cost global communications. Through an alliance with the leading network providers around the world, iPass enables ISPs to provide easy and secure Internet access with a local call though more than 2,700 access points in 150 countries. iPass is the proven standard for global Internet roaming and corporate remote access/VPN solutions and the company's clearinghouse platform is used to enable IP telephony, IP fax and other emerging Internet-based services. iPass is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and additional information can be found at http://www.ipass.com.About TransNexus
TransNexus provides the first real-time brokering of interconnectivity through an open, non-exclusive clearinghouse service. This service targets IP telephony gateway operators seeking and/or providing termination services for IP voice and fax communications. TransNexus authenticates, authorizes and records the calling traffic between unaffiliated gateways, and provides reconciliation and settlement of all inter-gateway termination fees. For additional information visit http://www.transnexus.com.Cisco IOS is a trademark, and Catalyst, Cisco, Cisco Systems, Lightstream and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
