STOCKHOLM -- ECI Telecom Ltd. (NASDAQ: ECIL - News), a global provider of advanced telecommunications solutions, and CIRPACK, a Thomson subsidiary leading the market of next generation voice switches for operators' infrastructures, today announced the introduction of a joint solution to help telecom service providers in Europe migrate their legacy local loops to next generation access networks and global VoIP infrastructures according to the TISPAN architecture. This solution was also successfully demonstrated at European carriers labs.

The ECI/Cirpack solution is designed to enable incumbent operators to easily migrate their wireline voice infrastructures and quickly turn off their legacy PSTN without disrupting existing services or changing the equipment used at the customer premises. Alternative operators and Internet Service Providers can also benefit from the ECI/Cirpack solution to offer analog and ISDN services using MSAG already deployed for delivering advanced broadband services. Leveraging local loop unbundling regulations with the ECI/Cirpack solution, alternative operators can now provide triple-play services, high-speed broadband Internet access, video and voice with the same user experience than services from incumbent operators.

The ECI/Cirpack solution is comprised of ECI's Hi-FOCuS(TM) and Cirpack's MultiNode-B platforms. ECI's Hi-FOCuS is a Multi-Service Access Gateway delivering all flavors of DSL as well as legacy voice interfaces from a single shelf. It converts voice traffic to/from VoIP so users can keep their existing phone devices and operators can migrate their infrastructure to VoIP. Cirpack MultiNode-B is a highly modular Class-5 switch controlling the Hi-FOCuS voice interfaces using H.248/Megaco to deliver all the legacy phone services users are expecting and ensuring seamless communications with the PSTN. ECI's Hi-FOCuS and Cirpack's MultiNode-B were developed to handle the largest voice infrastructures, enabling massive migration of primary line services to VoIP.

"European operators will reap the benefits of a powerful platform offered by ECI and Cirpack to assist with migrating their infrastructure while expanding their service offerings in the most cost-effective manner to ensure customer attraction," said Ofer Reviv, VP Marketing & Sales Support of the Broadband Access Division of ECI Telecom. "ECI and Cirpack are first to market with an end-to-end solution capable of maintaining existing POTS/ISDN voice services in an IMS/TISPAN architecture."

"Wireline operators cannot afford to maintain the access networks they have deployed in the late 70s for much longer. Business models and technologies have changed. Multiservice Access Gateways together with SoftSwitches can handle voice, broadband and multimedia services using a single infrastructure," explains Jean-Pierre Dumolard, Cirpack's General Manager. "ECI's track record of deploying very large access infrastructure and Cirpack's know how in replacing PSTN switches with NGN platforms will allow incumbent as well as alternative operators to move quickly, generate major savings and take a leading edge."

ECI Telecom Ltd.

Cirpack