[Taiwan - 14 May 2003] Information technology (IT) students and professionals have been honoured by Cisco Systems® Taiwan for their high-quality designs in Taiwan's first-ever Cisco® IP Phone Services Competition. The contest attracted more than 300 participants and generated 107 Internet Protocol (IP) phone applications such as a travel reservation system and a calorie counter.

Initiated by Cisco, the competition aims to promote the development of IP phone technology in Taiwan. The competition also provides an opportunity for the general public to help shape the future of IP telephony.

The tremendous response from local software designers highlighted the strong interest in IP telephony in Taiwan. It also illustrated the great potential in the academic sector and IT industry in helping to build new applications for IP phones.

"We are very pleased to see so much outstanding software development talent take part in this competition. With their participation we are able to create a very strong application environment for IP telephony development," said Larry Chai, general manager of Cisco Taiwan.

"I believe that this competition is a very important milestone in the development of IP telephony in Taiwan. Today, the technology is considered a key component in an IP-based network solution. It is our objective to continuously enhance the features of IP phones to satisfy the needs of users in different industries."

The variety of program designs demonstrated the abundant features offered by IP telephony. These range from an online theatre service system, online scheduling, address book, and short message service (SMS) to real-time stock price inquiry, travel reservation system, e-mail system, Internet bulletin board wizard, calorie calculation and medical information inquiry.

The winning teams were selected based on the practicality, ease of use, creativity, market viability and technological skills of their programs. Winners of the competition were selected on 22 April. Within the competition, the "Robot" team from National Taiwan University won the student category. The winning project is an IP phone e-mail system. The application, which is easy to use even for people without computer experience, enables e-mails to be transmitted over an IP phone.

Winner of the open category, the "Revolution" team from EVERelite Technology, was also named the overall champion of the contest. The team created a "Cisco IP Phone Portal System" that could be integrated with a general enterprise information portal (EIP) to provide value added services including SMS, calendar, address book and to-do list. In addition, users can look up real-time stock information on the IP phone through popular portals such as Yahoo. The "Revolution" team's highly practical and feature-rich design is a key differentiator among the other programs.

One of the main judges is the chief engineer of Chung Hwa Telecom Lee Tien-yung. "We are amazed by the contestants' design capabilities. Not only do they possess excellent skills for designing IP phone applications but also a strong market sense to bring a high commercial value for enterprises," he said.

An IP telephone is more than just a phone, providing an effective means for Web-based communication. By converging data and voice onto a single IP network, the technology delivers high-quality voice transmission and significant cost savings. Today, IP phones have become the latest productivity-enhanced IP-based personal communication tool after the personal computer, telephone, cellular device and personal digital assistant (PDA).

The Cisco IP Phone Services Competition was organized by Cisco Systems Taiwan, with support from the Cisco Networking Academy® Program and the Promotion Department of Institute for Information Industry. Among the many sponsors are Equant Taiwan, IBM Taiwan, Microsoft Taiwan, Tatung System Technologies Inc., Global Intelligent Network, and Training Partners.

"The success of this competition is a joint effort of our co-organisers and sponsors. With the collaboration of various parties, we are confident that we can create a borderless network world and extend the reach of IP telephony to new levels," said Chai.