Sonus Networks Joins UCIF to Advance Unified Communications Interoperability

WESTFORD, Mass., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in next-generation IP-based network solutions, today announced its Adopter level membership in the recently formed Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to fully realize the potential of unified communications (UC). The UCIF is dedicated to enabling standards-based, cross-vendor interoperability of UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers and consumer clouds and is designed to enable global businesses to be more productive.

Recognizing that seamless interoperability based on open standards is one of the key requirements to drive UC further into today's enterprises, UCIF members will collaborate to overcome existing interoperability barriers to widespread UC adoption and deliver a reliable and rich Unified Communications experience, with the goal of propelling worldwide enterprise UC adoption.

"We recognize that open standards and interoperability are essential for organizations deploying enterprise-wide technology such as unified communications solutions," said Mykola Konrad, director of enterprise product management. "As Sonus moves to enable more enterprise unified communications through our session border control and session management products we feel that having a strong organization such as UCIF to help guarantee solution interoperability will help our customers and the entire industry."

"Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value promised," said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified Communications, IDC. "I'm delighted to see Sonus Networks take a leading role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help drive industry-wide adoption of open standards and develop programs that put accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and investment protection for end customers -- something that will surely accelerate adoption of UC technologies."

The UCIF will work with existing industry standards, identifying and filling the gaps between current protocols and interoperability issues that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of valuable communications methods. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software solution providers, service providers and network operators. For more information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org.  

About the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum

The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF's vision is to enable interoperability of standards-based UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles, implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability between UC products and existing communications and business applications. Visit www.ucif.org to learn more.

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.

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.