Bluemile Deploys Sonus NBS-5200 for Advanced Session Border Control

WESTFORD, Mass. and COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in next generation IP-based network solutions, and Bluemile, Inc., a nationwide provider of IP data and voice cloud services, today announced that Bluemile has become the first customer to place live commercial traffic on the new Sonus NBS-5200 Network Border Switch. Within weeks of the product's availability, the operator was able to interoperate and validate the NBS-5200 with the other equipment that is already supporting millions of minutes a day in traffic, and place it in service.

Built on Sonus' new ConnexIP™ platform, the NBS-5200 represents the next generation in border control.  It is the highest density, highest scalability Session Border Control (SBC) solution in its class with integrated transcoding and media interworking, with native support for IPv6 and IPSec encryption.    

"As the number of customers and traffic on our network has grown, it became clear we needed to rethink our approach to border control solutions as we continued our expansion into additional markets rather than the typical answer of throwing multiple boxes at the problem," said Jamie Busic, chief executive officer of Bluemile. "Sonus has delivered exceptional network performance in the backbone of our voice network so we weren't surprised when the NBS-5200 delivered the session control, media transcoding and scalability we needed in a single platform. The 5200 was extremely easy to deploy and we were able to get our new service locations up and running within our network in less than two weeks."  Offering his view on the entire Sonus portfolio, Jamie further added: "Overall we believe Sonus' products have influenced our ability to attract and secure some of the larger companies in the IXC/Wireless/Cable and CLEC space.  Several of our customers have communicated to us, on more than one occasion, that having Sonus deployed in our network has given them the level of confidence needed to do business with Bluemile. We believe Sonus products have helped Bluemile gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace."  

Bluemile will deploy the NBS-5200 at locations throughout the country to consolidate its cloud based IP communications offerings and offer new hosted services to its growing customer base.

"We are extremely pleased with how quickly the NBS-5200 has won customer confidence and demonstrated its readiness to carry commercial traffic while addressing all the features and performance requirements of a growing service provider such as Bluemile," said Guru Pai, chief operating officer of Sonus Networks.  "The NBS-5200 leverages the mature software base of our widely deployed NBS-9000 network border switch, which gives it the robustness and feature richness when being evaluated through rigorous customer acceptance cycles."

Sonus NBS-5200, the next generation session border control product launched on the ConnexIP™ platform mid-May, has already witnessed strong customer interest.  In addition to its first commercial deployment with Bluemile, it is in trials and evaluations at multiple other customer locations.  

About ConnexIP

The ConnexIP platform from Sonus is an innovative platform optimized for connecting, managing, and securing IP session based communications and represents a key element in Sonus' strategy to bring industry leading performance and carrier grade reliability to the session management market. Powered by best-in-class network processors, multi-core computing devices, solid-state storage, high density media processing cards, and layered with Sonus' proven middleware and protocol stacks, ConnexIP represents a new foundation for the next generation of IP based products from Sonus.

For further information on the NBS-5200, visit www.sonusnet.com.

About Sonus Networks

Sonus Networks, Inc. is a leader in IP networking with proven expertise in delivering secure, reliable and scalable next generation infrastructure and subscriber solutions.  With customers in over 50 countries across the globe and over a decade of experience in transforming networks to IP, Sonus has enabled service providers and enterprises to capture and retain users and generate significant ROI.  Sonus products include media and signaling gateways, policy/routing servers, session border controllers and subscriber feature servers.  Sonus products are supported by a global services team with experience in design, deployment and maintenance of some of the world's largest and most complex IP networks.  For more information visit www.sonusnet.com.

About Bluemile

Bluemile, Inc started in 2003 and specializes in the products and services that power the most successful companies and services providers worldwide.

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results.  Readers are referred to Item 1A "Risk Factors" of Sonus' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 and all subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  Any forward-looking statements represent Sonus' views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing Sonus' views as of any subsequent date.  While Sonus may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Sonus specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law.

Sonus is a registered trademark of Sonus Networks, Inc.  All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

SOURCE Sonus Networks, Inc.