CommWorks Partners With CTC

TOKYO, Japan -- CommWorks, a 3Com Company (NASDAQ: COMS) and Itochu Techno-Science (CTC) today announced that they will jointly provide Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solutions for telecommunication service providers in Japan. The two companies are working to develop IP solutions that leverage Japan's broadband infrastructure, to enable service providers to provision multimedia voice and data capabilities.

CommWorks will provide an end-to-end IP solution that includes the IP telephony core platform, comprised of the Total Control® 1000 Media Gateway and the CommWorks® Softswitch, including its service creation platform and backend support for billing and user authentication. With the service creation platform, CommWorks is able to provide customized IP-based services that target the specific needs and interests of various categories of business and residential users.

CTC will draw on its experience as a key system integrator and reseller in Japan to integrate CommWorks' IP telephony and services with UNIX servers. In addition, CTC will provide professional support services and has committed to building a sales force to market and resell this solution in the Japanese market. The company aims to deploy CommWorks IP telephony solutions to 20 service providers over the next two years.

"CommWorks has an impressive track record in providing IP telephony solutions from the core infrastructure to applications to telecommunications providers worldwide," said Tohru Nakano, senior vice president and general manager of CTC Sales Group. "CommWorks solutions are built to interoperate with various equipment vendors and legacy solutions, such as circuit switched technology. Since the market here is still entrenched in these legacy solutions, CommWorks is our partner of choice for us to strengthen our presence in this growing next-generation networks market."

"CTC has traditionally been one of CommWorks' most important partners in Japan. We have been working together to deploy our remote access and mobile networking solutions in Japan," said Roger Manka, vice president, worldwide sales, CommWorks. "With the combination of CTC's strong sales team and CommWorks' leadership in the global IP telephony and softswitch technology, we are well-positioned in the Japanese market."

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