ISPhone Selects Voice Capable Cisco AS5300s to Enable ISPs to Provide IP Telephony Services
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- September 29, 1998 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced that ISPhone, Inc. has selected the Cisco AS5300 universal access server to support the ISPhone nationwide consortium of Internet service providers (ISPs). The ISPs will provide long-distance voice and fax telephone services. ISPhone is a leading consortium that provides IP telephony service to help other ISPs offer leading-edge products and services to customers.
The enhanced ISPhone network will support voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), giving ISPs access to a range of new IP-based services, including IP telephony and IP facsimile. ISPhone plans to begin offering the new services in November. Although ISPs will set individual pricing, ISPhone estimates that long-distance rates over IP service will be significantly lower than Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) rates for calls originating and terminating on a company's IP network.
"Our ISP consortium gives regional ISPs the opportunity to provide IP telephony services to their existing data customers, and to attract new customers," said Victor von Schlegell, president and CEO of ISPhone. "We chose Cisco to deliver this groundbreaking network because of the quality and reliability of the equipment and affordable financing. Cisco also offers superior voice quality and is a leading-edge technology innovator. We look forward to rolling out new IP services based on their open architecture for telephony services."
"We applaud ISPhone's efforts in providing a significant business opportunity to ISPs nationwide," said Ian Landy, vice president, Telephony Internet Services Unit at Cisco Systems. "The customers of participating ISPs will benefit from ISPhone's superior service and value, and the consortium is helping to usher in a new era of voice services."
The ISPhone Network: Built for Quality and Reliability
The universal service offers phone-to-phone, rather than PC to phone, to allow consumers to place long-distance calls using an easy-to-use home user interface. ISPhone has ensured reliability and quality of its network by teaming up with Qwest Communications and developing a fully meshed frame-relay network.Under the terms of the Cisco agreement, ISPhone will purchase Cisco AS5300 universal access server ports and voice/fax feature cards. ISPhone is participating in the Cisco "Easy Access for ISPs" financing program, which offers competitive financing programs to ISPs.
Cisco AS5300 Universal Access Server
The Cisco AS5300 is designed to support the growing volume of dial-in and voice connections to service providers and corporate networks. It delivers optimum performance for as many as 60 voice sessions or as many as 120 concurrent analog modem calls and ISDN B channels over a single dial-in telephone number. As the next-generation Cisco universal access server, the Cisco AS5300 raises the bar for performance in high- traffic, real-world environments.The Cisco AS5300 VoIP gateway is a high-performance H.323-compliant gateway optimized for VoIP applications. Supporting up to 2T1/E1 digital trunks, it connects with existing telephones and fax machines through the PSTN, key systems and PBXs, making the process of placing calls over the IP network transparent to users. According to Mier Communications, a networking consultancy and product-test center that tested the voice/fax feature cards for the Cisco AS5300, "The quality of voice, under normal network operating conditions, is the best of any VoIP product we have tested to date."
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