MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- Telica(R), Inc., a leading provider of intelligent voice switching solutions, today announced its international expansion into Asia Pacific, Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) with the opening of two new regional offices.

Telica, established in 1998, has grown to become a leader in the North American softswitch market, with more than 60 customer deployments including Verizon, Rogers Wireless and KMC Telecom. With the opening of these international offices, Telica extends its market opportunities to two of the key telecom growth areas of the 21st century. The new offices will introduce Telica's Plexus Unified Services (PLUS(TM)) architecture to the Asia Pacific and CALA regions. The unique ability of the PLUS architecture to deliver a product that scales from 2,000 ports to 200,000 ports using the same platform makes it especially qualified to address the large range of opportunities in the international arena.

Telica's PLUS architecture is a second-generation, carrier-grade softswitch solution that provides service providers with a rich mix of legacy TDM, next-generation packet, Class 4, Class 5, wireline and wireless services. The PLUS architecture includes the Plexus Media Gateway, Media Gateway Controller and Signaling Gateway. Service providers worldwide can deploy any combination of these open, flexible telecom platforms using either integrated or distributed configurations. The architecture enables the carrier to deliver value-added, high-revenue services while enhancing network efficiencies and reducing costs. The scalability and deployment flexibility of the PLUS architecture makes it highly suitable for countries large and small.

"Telica is committed to broadening its global reach to bring our PLUS(TM) solution to carriers across all geographic markets. The robust growth opportunities that Asia Pacific and CALA offer are significant to Telica," said John St. Amand, President and CEO of Telica. "These new direct facilities will enable us to work closely with the International incumbent and next-generation carriers as they plan their migration to a packet network."

Robert Kiely and Ralph Candiloro, two industry veterans with more than 20 years experience each have joined Telica to drive sales, support and marketing in the new regional territories. Prior to joining Telica, Kiely, who will oversee the Caribbean, Latin America, as well as Spain and Portugal, served as vice president of sales for International Broadband Solutions. Kiely's background also includes sales management for Alcatel, DSC Corporation and AT&T. Ralph Candiloro, who will oversee Asia Pacific, was most recently managing director, Australian/New Zealand and sales operations APAC for CoSine Communications, Inc. Candiloro also held senior positions with Lucent Technologies, Ericsson Australia Pty Ltd, and Tennyson Technologies.

Telica Inc.