San Ramon, CA, February 18, 2000 - The International Softswitch Consortium (ISC) and the Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) today announced that they will co-sponsor the Second Annual Megaco/H.248 InterOp event at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH on February 18-22, 2001. Hosted by Ericsson, the event marks the second time that the MSF and ISC have come together to ensure that products and services using Megaco achieve the goal of global interoperability - a major objective of both organizations.

The Phase One InterOp event is open to participants who bring a Megaco gateway, controller, parser or test box for interoperability testing. Participants may be software and/or hardware vendors or carriers who develop test boxes for their lab environments. As a Phase One InterOp event, the protocol and its documentation are under test rather than the specific implementation.

"The ISC and Multiservice Switching Forum consider last year's event such a success, I am strongly encouraging all of our member companies to participate," says Ike Elliott, president of the ISC. "The future of telecommunications is softswitch and this InterOp event will help to craft the protocols needed to make this future happen today."

"Interoperability is the cornerstone of any next generation network,"said Roger Ward, president of the Mulitservice Switching Forum. "This interoperability event provides a real service to companies working to build that network and the MSF is pleased to help provide a venue for manufacturers to test their work."

About the ISC
The International Softswitch Consortium was launched in May 1999 to support rapid advancement of application development for the evolving Internet protocol networks which support both voice and multimedia communications. Internet protocol networks are built on distributed call control servers generally called "call agents", "media gateway controllers", "softswitches", and "media gateways". The Consortium promotes worldwide compatibility and interoperability; identifying, selecting, augmenting as appropriate, the development and distribution of standard interfaces for call agents, media gateways, and applications. More information can be found on the International Softswitch Consortium's website at http://www.softswitch.org.

About the MSF
The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) is a global association of service providers and system suppliers committed to developing and promoting open-architecture, multiservice switching systems. Founded in 1998, the MSF is an open-membership organization comprised of the world's leading telecommunications companies. The MSF's activities include developing implementation agreements, promoting worldwide compatibility and interoperability, and encouraging input to appropriate national and international standards bodies. For more information about the MSF and its members, visit the MSF web site at http://www.msforum.org.

For further details about the MSF/ISC InterOp Event please go to: http://megaco.iol.unh.edu. ISC CONTACT:
Micaela Giuhat
Santera Systems
Tel: 214-291-2304
Email: micaela.giuhat@santera.com

MSF CONTACT:
Deborah Porchivina
Porchivina and Associates
Tel: 415-897-3010
Email: deborah@papr.com