MONTREAL -- Octasic, a semiconductor vendor delivering silicon solutions to telecom infrastructure manufacturers for use in wireless, Voice over Packet (VoP), and TDM processing, today announced that its OCT6100 Series carrier-grade echo cancellation solution is now available in 32 and 64 channels with pricing as low as US$1.20 per channel.

These lower density devices bring Octasic’s best-in-class voice quality solutions to manufacturers of Enterprise and Access equipment. Equipment that can benefit from these devices include: IP-PBX’s, host-based media processing platforms and IADs. Low pricing for such a high-quality echo cancellation solution allows cost-competitive enterprise equipment vendors to benefit from the same rigorous quality standards applied by the world’s best carrier networks.

“By scaling down its echo cancellation solution to 32 and 64 channels, Octasic can look towards capitalizing on the tremendous growth opportunity in the enterprise IP-PBX market”, said Ronald Gruia, Program Leader, Enterprise Communications Solutions at Frost and Sullivan. A recent Frost and Sullivan report forecasts that the number of IP- PBX endpoint licenses will grow from 6.5 million in 2003 to over 30 million by 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 46.8 percent. Echo cancellation is required for every IP- PBX system serving these stations.

According to Gruia, “A key value differentiator for Octasic is the inclusion of state-of-the-art, conferencing capabilities directly on its voice processing devices – something not common to most echo cancellers. Conference calls with many participants present a voice-quality challenge and Octasic’s algorithm is adept at managing those challenges resulting from the noisy environments behind these calls.”

In addition to full-featured conferencing, the OCT6100 Series includes other key features not typical to echo cancellation devices such as superior noise matching capabilities, tone-detection and announcement playout. Incorporating these features directly into the echo canceller allows Octasic to drastically reduce the cost of the total voice processing solution.

Delivering Best-Quality Voice Across IP and TDM Networks

The OCT6100 Series of echo cancellation processors has raised the competitive-bar in terms of enabling network equipment vendors to deliver superior echo cancellation and voice quality enhancements to service provider networks. According to internationally recognized carrier lab testing, the Octasic algorithm delivers superior voice quality to both IP and TDM networks. The new devices in the OCT6100 Series bring the same unparalleled voice quality currently offered in Octasic’s largest channel-capacity chip, to low density devices.

"We have demonstrated the strength of our echo cancellation algorithm through both carrier evaluations and customer field-deployments,” said Michel Laurence, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Octasic. “The quality of our solution is second-to-none at the higher densities, and now by offering our devices in lower densities, we bring our competitively-priced, leading-edge voice-quality processors to equipment in the enterprise.”

Octasic Inc.