News Release

Cisco Brings Leading Asia Pacific Service Providers Together to Promote Internet Telephony

Cisco Service Carrier Community initiative fosters alliance among Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Service Providers
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Dec 12, 2001



SHANGHAI, P.R.C. -- 12 December 2001 -- Cisco Systems Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, hosted a summit of leading Asia Pacific Service Providers in Shanghai over the weekend to promote the growth of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) traffic in the region. The Asia Pacific Executive Voice Summit supports Cisco's Service Carrier Community program, an initiative aimed at propelling global service providers to new levels of revenue and profitability through the use of VoIP.

The Asia Pacific region, which already accounts for about a quarter of the world's VoIP traffic, is poised to realize considerable cost and efficiency benefits from this leading edge phone technology. The tremendous gains made by leading Chinese Service Providers through VoIP, made China the logical choice for the summit. Summit attendees heard how China Unicom is using Cisco's technology to build the largest VoIP network in the world.

With VoIP, voice information is sent digitally in packet form over Internet Protocol (IP) rather than through traditional circuit protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In simple terms, it enables Service Providers to leverage IP-based networks to offer voice services as well as data and video.

As members of the Cisco Service Carrier Community, Cisco-based service providers in Asia Pacific and around the world are able to work together to exchange traffic and maximize their respective application strengths – with the ultimate objective of delivering end-to-end VoIP services to customers. The summit provided a platform for regional service providers to set best practices and drive the development of VoIP.

"The Cisco Service Carrier Community initiative is helping service providers build a "network of networks" to reduce transport cost and provide a more feature-rich set of services. The key to this is leveraging the service providers' IP-based networks to offer VoIP and differentiated services," said Andrew Murray, Vice President, Asia Pacific Service Provider Operations at Cisco Systems. "At Cisco we are in a unique position to bring this critical mass of companies together because there are hundreds of service providers worldwide using Cisco's VoIP technology."

According to Infonetics Research, worldwide revenues for next generation voice products are forecasted to total US$6 billion in 2004. As the overall leader in VoIP technology, Cisco is well positioned to help service providers take advantage of this growth market.

Members of the Cisco Service Carrier Community program are provided with a password protected, searchable Web database containing profiles of all members, including the traffic routes they serve, their contact information and application services they provide. This allows service providers to find business partners for origination, transport, and termination of voice traffic in over 200 countries around the world. And for those members who have achieved Cisco Powered Network status and are providing business communications services, the program will help link them with Cisco's extensive enterprise and small/medium business customer base.

Through the Service Carrier Community web page, members in the Asia Pacific region and around the world can access links to relevant product and solution information, and to the Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem. This is a community of technology and services companies enabling service providers to rapidly deploy and manage innovative networking services. Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem Partners support open, standards-based architectures and a shared commitment to interoperable, multi-vendor solutions.

Cisco is the world leader in VoIP, and is strongly committed to continually develop innovative voice solutions as well as promote the Cisco Service Carrier Community program to help service providers grow their VoIP revenue streams.

To join the program, service providers should visit www.cisco.com/go/cscc.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at www.cisco.com.

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