TOKYO, Japan, July 1, 2005 - The world's largest vendor of networking equipment for the Internet, Cisco Systems KK (president: Yasuki Kurosawa; capital: JPY2.22 billion; head office: 2-14-27 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo; Cisco), announced that Plala Networks Inc. (president: Koji Bando; capital: JPY7.81 billion; head office: 3-1-1 Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo; Plala) adopted the Cisco® SCE 2020 Service Control Engine for the "Net Barrier Basic" filtering service that provides higher security and peace of mind for Internet use, which it began offering on July 1, 2005.

As broadband environments spread and the user base expands, there have been an increasing number of cases in which minors and users without specialist-level knowledge about the Internet are being caught up in crimes through the Internet. Based on this situation, Plala has been working to protect users from Internet threats since last year with the aim of enabling anyone to use the Internet "securely and with peace of mind."

The "Net Barrier Basic" service being offered is part of these efforts and is aimed at protecting members who don't have specialist-level knowledge about the Internet from malicious Websites and packets. It provides URL and packet filtering services on the Plala network that must be used by Plala users, making it possible to avoid network threats regardless of each individual's knowledge or skills. The service is being offered by default and free of charge to B-Flets users that are expected to increase rapidly in the future.

Since November 2003, Plala has been using the service control engine from Cisco (formerly P-Cube) for bandwidth control of P2P traffic. Using this solution, Plala eliminated the problem of the entire Plala backbone network being congested due to traffic from Internet users other than Plala subscribers, typified by users of P2P file sharing services, and greatly increased the convenience of the Internet for subscribers.

In addition to using functions for analysis and control for each user as a measure against P2P traffic, the Cisco Service Control Engine has also made it possible to deploy new services such as security services. It has become possible to provide fine-tuned services through subscriber-based controls.

Plala is conducting development to provide an Internet environment with greater security and peace of mind for subscribers, including services for identifying and blocking traffic patterns of worms and unauthorized access, and services for warning users infected by worms and viruses.

Benefits of Implementing the Service Control Engine

The Cisco Service Control Engine is a solution that controls packets on a Layer-7 application level while utilizing the existing IP network infrastructure to provide a variety of services. It also makes it possible to flexibly provide services according to the account status of the user because each subscriber can be identified.

• Providing a secure and smooth broadband environment: Network bandwidth is optimized by controlling the network bandwidth occupied by P2P applications. Moreover, subscribers can use broadband with greater security and peace of mind because of the ability to shut out unauthorized intrusions and viruses on an application level.
• Optimization of support services: A reduction in the number of inquiries about security problems such as virus infections will mean human resources used on these inquiries can instead be directed to the support services they were originally supposed to be performing such as service guidance and instructions.
• Establishment of infrastructure for providing services fine-tuned to each subscriber: As each subscriber can be identified, the infrastructure has been built for providing optional services such as implementing filtering according to individual needs. Plala plans to utilize this infrastructure to provide a variety of optional services in the future.

About Plala Networks Inc.

As a group company of NTT East, Plala Networks Inc. operates the Internet service provider "Plala," in addition to operating platform businesses in IP telephone services and the "4th MEDIA" video delivery service. As of March 31, 2005, the company had 1.45 million broadband subscribers and is striving to provide a diverse service line with high cost performance to consumers, enterprises and schools.See the following Website for further details about Plala.<http://www.plala.or.jp/>