APEX Voice Communications Cuts SS7 Pricing in Half

SS7 Replaces ISDN as Most Installed Protocol on APEX Enhanced Switch

SHERMAN OAKS, CA, October 20, 2004 - APEX Voice Communications, a leading supplier of enhanced services and real-time billing solutions to carriers, telecom service providers and enterprises worldwide, today announced a reduction in the price of its APEX Enhanced Switch (AES) SS7 ISUP module. AES combines the power of a programmable switch with the flexibility of an IVR platform by supporting Microsoft's® I/O Completion Port technology, Intel's® NetStructure™ telephony boards and NEC's® high-availability fault tolerant servers for the latest in high-density, carrier-grade technologies. Key features of AES include a graphical service creation, management and configuration environment; support for worldwide telephony and signaling protocols; scalability to over 4,000 non-blocking ports in a single switch; and seamless integration to a range of service-ready solutions from APEX.

As a switching platform, AES can work as an enhanced gateway in a mixed environment, supporting both circuit (TDM/PSTN) and packet (IP) switched networks, while providing core switching functions, such as tandem switching, within a Service Node. As an enhanced services platform, AES is the basis for revenue-generating services such as prepaid calling, intelligent 800-number routing, voice/fax messaging, voice-activated dialing, mass calling and high-density IVR, increasing average revenue per user (ARPU).

With its SS7 module, AES can seamlessly reside within an SS7 network. The SS7 components, together with the SS7 hardware from Intel, provides AES with direct connection to the SS7 network, allowing it to function as one or more signaling point node(s) within the network. Currently supported SS7 variants include ANSI, as well as ITU-T variants such as MTP Level 2 ITU Q.701- 703, MTP Level 3 ITU Q.704-707 and ISUP ITU Q.761-764, Q767.

"The improved SS7 pricing reflects the market position of SS7 and the experience APEX has gained in networks around the world using increasingly popular techniques such as ISUP Loopback," said Elhum Vahdat, Executive Vice President of APEX Voice Communications. "As more and more service providers look to improve the efficiency of their (legacy) networks, SS7 has become the leading signaling protocol of choice."

Typically, while Central Office switches provide basic services, calls requiring enhanced services are routed to a Service Node for handling. Within the Service Node, AES allows for the rapid design, development and deployment of enhanced services using the award-winning OmniView®, a Java-based service creation and configuration tool that runs on a Java-enabled browser from anywhere with in the (service provider's) network. Working with Microsoft's .NET, AES is also ready for seamless Web integration using Visual Basic or Java Scripts with XML.

As a carrier-grade solution, the APEX Enhanced Switch supports Microsoft's I/O Completion Port technology, which was developed to handle large web and mail servers that receive thousands of simultaneous hits. I/O Completion Port increases overall system performance and the number of calls AES can handle, ranking it as one of the highest performing switches in its class. Additionally, by supporting NEC's high availability fault tolerant servers, the AES delivers a new level of continuous availability for carrier-grade applications. With maximum uptime and fully integrated, redundant components that virtually eliminate any single point of failure, these NEC servers have no interruption in processing, no loss of performance, and no loss of data.

Intel is a registered trademark and NetStructure is a trademark of Intel Corp. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corp. OmniView is a a registered trademark of APEX Voice Communications, Inc.