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MetaSwitch and Texas Instruments collaborate on enhanced voice quality monitoring

LAS VEGAS and DALLAS, June 18 PRNewswire — Addressing one of the key subscriber issues affecting VoIP adoption today, MetaSwitch has selected standards-based voice quality analysis technology from Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (TI) for its media gateway products. This analysis technology will enhance the network monitoring capabilities of its MetaView network management system. With the addition of this proactive monitoring and reporting feature across MetaSwitch's entire media gateway product line, service provider networks will be alerted to potential call quality issues — even while the call is still connected. This real-time feature will allow service providers to more dynamically address a wide range of network problems, resulting in users experiencing greater overall satisfaction with their voice service.

According to Yankee Group research, the quality of VoIP service is a key determinant to the technology's long term success, and is one of the top three reasons users change providers. The research also reports that the ability to effectively discover and repair problems will impact each VoIP provider's operational expenditures, and their ability to keep both consumer and business subscribers from churning to another service. Similarly, a recent report by Keynote Research notes that VoIP quality from cable and VoIP service providers still largely trails the quality of fixed line voice.

Introduced in January 2008, the MetaView network management system enabled carriers to monitor the health of the entire VoIP network, with real-time statistics superimposed on a graphical display of the network topology. In that first release, these statistics included packet loss, delay, and jitter. The addition of TI's quality management technology in every MetaSwitch gateway will enable additional standards-based statistics such as estimated mean opinion score (MOS) to be provided.

"We strongly believe in delivering quality products to the VoIP marketplace, not only in the implementation of the media gateway itself, but also in the ability to proactively monitor the total service," said Mike Evans, Vice President of System Architecture at MetaSwitch. "MetaView's voice quality monitoring from each and every gateway provides operators with an unsurpassed capability, never before experienced."

This real-time VoIP quality monitoring feature is a key element of TI's PIQUA(TM) software, and leverages the IETF RFC 3611, Real Time Control Protocol Extended Reports (RTCP-XR) standard, providing a call by call, standards-based quality metric calculation and reporting mechanism. In addition, PIQUA software interoperates with other devices on the network complying with this standard, allowing widespread use across disparate service provider networks. PIQUA software addresses the voice quality from the IP network media gateway and is an integral component of TI's Telogy Software(TM) provided for high-density VoIP products.

"As a provider of core technology for a wide variety of VoIP products, we see the need for quality monitoring and management as a key network capability for continued VoIP market penetration and success", said John Smrstik, manager of high density core networks at Texas Instruments. "This standards-based quality metric reporting is a foundational capability of our quality management system, and we are proud to see MetaSwitch taking a market leadership role through the implementation and promotion of this RFC 3611 standard."

For more information on the products and technologies referenced in this announcement, visit http://www.metaswitch.com/products/metaview.htm or http://www.ti.com/piqua.

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch is an industry-leading vendor of switching and applications solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its MetaSphere service delivery platform and applications suite enables a broad set of hosted IP communications services, while its core session control and media/signaling gateway products support a full range of Class 4/5 softswitch capabilities. Customers include many of the world's leading operators of wireline, wireless and cable networks, with deployments that scale to millions of subscribers. For more information, please visit http://www.metaswitch.com.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun. A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through manufacturing, design and sales operations in more than 25 countries. For more information, go to http://www.ti.com

Trademarks

PIQUA and Telogy Software are trademarks of Texas Instruments. All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments; MetaSwitch

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