Cisco IP telephony voice solutions now include a mid-range IP phone, an IP conference phone and new gateway functionality

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 28, 2000 - To provide customers with additional options for migration to IP telephony, Cisco Systems announced today enhancements to its line of enterprise IP telephony solutions. These solutions will provide flexibility and additional options to smoothly migrate large enterprises over to a converged infrastructure based on Cisco's Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (Cisco AVVID), which enable organizations to increase productivity and agility in the Internet economy.

"IP Telephony has established itself as a viable and scaleable alternative to circuit-based PBX phone systems. Over the last four quarters, the IP Telephony market has grown twelve-fold to $60 million in Q3 2000 from $5 million in Q3 1999. Further, the market is trending to exceed $250 million for the year," said Jeremy Duke, Founder & Principal Analyst, Synergy Research Group. "In Q3 2000, Cisco maintained the #1 position for IP Telephony sales with a market share of over 60 percent. The execution of Cisco's packet voice strategy appears to be firing on all cylinders as it continues to establish leadership positions across enterprise and service provider Voice over Packet markets as well as expand the product offerings targeted at those emerging voice segments."

The new solutions announced today include the Cisco IP Conference Station 7935, the Cisco IP phone 7940, the DPA 7630 Voice Mail Gateway and expanded interface support on the Cisco VG200.

Intelligent IP Solutions for Conference Rooms

As IP phones continue to be deployed across the enterprise, customers need a range of solutions for a range of environments. To that end, Cisco teamed with Polycom, the industry leader in conferencing solutions, to develop an IP conference phone for the Cisco AVVID environment.

The Cisco IP Conference Station 7935 is an intelligent IP-based full duplex hands-free conference station for use on desktops, offices, and in small to medium-sized conference rooms. This device is attached to a Catalyst 10/100 Ethernet switch port with an RJ-45 connection and like all of Cisco IP telephony products, automatically configures itself to the IP network via the Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP). The 7935 dynamically registers to Cisco's CallManager for connection services, receives the appropriate end point phone number and any software enhancements or personalized settings which are pre-loaded within Cisco's CallManager.

Mid-Range IP Telephone

In response to customer demand for a complete line of phones, Cisco is also expanding its line for desktop sets by introducing a mid range telephone that fits between the high-end Cisco IP phone 7960 and the functional Cisco IP phone 7910.

The Cisco IP Phone 7940 is a second-generation, full-featured IP phone for low to medium traffic users who require minimal directory numbers and telephone lines. It provides two programmable line/feature buttons capable of four simultaneous calls and four interactive soft keys that guide a user through call features and functions. The Cisco IP Phone 7940 also has a large, pixel-based LCD display. The display provides features such as date and time, calling party name, calling party number and digits dialed.

Consistent with all second generation Cisco IP desktop phones, the 7940 is fully based on industry standard IP and auto configures itself with the Cisco CallManager. It can also utilize Cisco's In-line power capabilities from a Catalyst switch.

Advanced Gateway Functionality for Smooth Migration

As customers continue their migration to an IP infrastructure, the path must be seamless and enable investment protection. To assist customers with this migration, Cisco is expanding its solution with a new gateway and enhancing the capabilities of the Cisco VG200 gateway.

The Cisco DPA 7630 Voice Mail Gateway is a new solution that enables legacy voice mail equipment to connect to a Cisco IP telephony solution. Essentially, it allows Octel voice mail systems, which currently use Digital Station Emulation to connect to an Avaya Definity PBX, to instead connect to a Cisco IP CallManager system without any changes to the voice mail system. The Cisco DPA 7630 allows the voice mail system to be used solely by the Cisco CallManager or to be shared between the Cisco CallManager and the private branch exchange (PBX).

By deploying the DPA 7630, customers can preserve their current investments and allow the Octel voice mail system to be maintained without any hardware or software component changes. This solution also provides a seamless migration path as users can move from the PBX to Cisco CallManager without any changes to their voice mailbox. They can maintain the same phone number and any messages they have saved will remain on the voice mail system. The DPA 7630 also offers feature transparency through CallManager for many messaging features familiar to PBX users such as the spell-by-name and voice mail forwarding capabilities.

In order to enable customers with increased flexibility and options for deployment, Cisco is also announcing that it will support H.323 applications through various Voice Interface Cards (VIC) and WAN Interface Cards (WIC) that slot into the VG200. These enhancements will include ISDN PRI (user and network side) support for T1 and E1 interface as well as additional support for T1 CAS FGD and E1-R2 signaling. BRI (user and network side) and E&M interface support will also be included in the upcoming release.

Pricing, Availability and Further Information

The Cisco DPA 7630 is available now for $6,995. The Cisco IP Phone 7940 will be available by the end 2000 and will list for $545. The Cisco IP Conference Station 7935 will be available in the Spring of 2001 for $1,195. The enhancements to the VG200 will be available as part of a Cisco IOS release scheduled for Q1 CY01.

For further information on Cisco's enterprise voice, video and data solutions, please see the Cisco AVVID web page at www.cisco.com/go/CiscoAVVID.