AUSTIN, Texas -- General Bandwidth, a leading Voice over IP equipment manufacturer enabling rapid deployment and new service revenue generation over broadband networks, and Essentia S.p.A., an Italy-based System Integrator & Solution Distributor, have entered into a distribution agreement for Essentia S.p.A. to sell General Bandwidth's G6® Universal Media Gateway Platform and offer system integration services to the Italian market and nearby countries, like Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania and vicinities.

Essentia S.p.A. takes care of the full turn-key supply, deploying and managing of the projects, performing network integration services and providing full support for customers, local telecommunications providers and systems integrators spanning beyond the Italian market into other parts of Europe.

Mr. Andrea Tarasconi, CEO of Essentia S.p.A., said, "We selected the General Bandwidth G6 platform because it provides a compact, flexible, scalable and reliable carrier class voice-gateway/media-gateway solution absolutely outstanding and well fitted for all the major future-expected broadband Wireless & Wireline regional projects."

"We are very happy with the collaboration that has taken place between us and Essentia to deliver the highest quality voice services to Essentia's integrated broadband customers," says Charles Vogt, President and CEO of General Bandwidth. "Essentia's vision to ensure a seamless migration toward packet voice services across its expanding broadband network is directly in line with ours and makes sense for the market."

"The scalability of the General Bandwidth G6 solution is so good that it can well be utilized by our customers, even in large Enterprise projects for PABXs consolidation and Corporate Centrex solutions in general," said Mr. Ferdinando Sabatino, Sales Director Enterprise Market of Essentia S.p.A.

General Bandwidth Inc.