"SMOOTHSTONECONNECT" IP TRUNKING SERVICE LAUNCHED.

Smoothstone IP Communications, Louisville, Ky., a leading nationwide provider of Enterprise Internet Protocol Communications Solutions, has launched SmoothstoneCONNECT, a new IP trunking service designed specifically for the Cisco Unified Communications System. This service is available to new and existing Smoothstone customers.

SmoothstoneCONNECT takes VoIP from a company's local area network, through its firewall, across Smoothstone's highly secure, nationwide and private IP wide area network, and to the local PSTN or to other Cisco Unified Communications System enabled handsets at the company's other locations across the country. Thus, SmoothstoneCONNECT offers multi-site Cisco Unified Communications System customers a truly end-to-end IP trunking solution. The announcement of SmoothstoneCONNECT further positions Smoothstone as a leading, enterprise-class, IP trunking services provider for VoIP.

SmoothstoneCONNECT uses industry-leading Cisco integrated service routers (ISRs) to interconnect premise based Cisco Unified Communication networks. Cisco ISRs are also designed to allow customers to migrate from TDM to IP interconnects at their pace, allowing them to maximize their previous capital and training-related investments.

"Innovative, customer-focused providers like Smoothstone are driving rapid growth of managed voice services by extending the functionality of Cisco solutions to meet the specific needs of their customers," said Kirt Jorgenson, director of the Cisco Powered Network Program. "We look forward to building on our relationship with Smoothstone to enhance its and its customers' productivity."

"The days of a T1 supporting only 24 simultaneous calls are over," said Jeff Wellemeyer, CTO and chairman of Smoothstone. "The world of infinitely scaleable, packet-based carrier networks is now truly here. Convergence on a corporate LAN alone can only add limited value. Allowing convergence to the carrier is where the benefits are."

The benefits of SmoothstoneCONNECT are many:

- Painless Scalability. SmoothstoneCONNECT's IP connection is a clear channel -- not a traditional, channelized T1 or PRI. It enables the dynamic delivery and immediate scalability of "no-busy tone" voice services.

- Improved Business Continuity. SmoothstoneCONNECT significantly increases phone service survivability and reliability, by allowing instantaneous rerouting of calls and geography-agnostic failovers. This includes the ability to re-route inbound calls to any PSTN or IP destination, accept voicemail messages and forward them to any email address, and allow users to update call routing rules, via a secure Web portal.

- A Lower Total Cost of Ownership. SmoothstoneCONNECT delivers voice carrier services, as well as data and video, over one converged network. It eliminates the need for separate media gateways, local voice access circuits, Internet access connections and data WANs, saving all of these additional costs and maximizing bandwidth efficiency.

SmoothstoneCONNECT's unique capabilities include the following:

- Direct inbound and outbound calling, using the Cisco Unified Communications System, via IP, available in over 5800 rate centers nationwide. (Local DIDs and phone numbers available everywhere.)

- Geography agnostic phone numbers (e.g., local Atlanta numbers in other cities, nationwide).

- Inbound toll-free calling.

Advanced SmoothstoneCONNECT allows the following:

- All of SmoothstoneCONNECT's standard features, plus additional, unique features:

- Softphone Termination - on any PC with an Internet connection

- Call Recording - calls can be recorded and delivered as e-mail attachments

- DirecFax(TM) - personal fax number for every user, with faxes delivered as email attachments

- "In The Cloud" Queuing - advanced call queuing

- "Database DIP" Call Routing - calls routed based on queries to client databases

- Automated Call Distribution/Queuing - complete call center operations, including queuing and reporting

Smoothstone delivers all of the services described above with the 24/7 management, QoS guarantees and outstanding customer service for which the company is well known. Clients also get access to NetStalk(TM) (Smoothstone's WAN management Web portal) and VoiceStalk(TM) (Smoothstone's call reporting Web portal).

To learn more about SmoothstoneCONNECT for the Cisco Unified Communications System, visit http://www.smoothstone.com/.

About Smoothstone IP Communications

Smoothstone is the leading, nationwide IP communications provider for medium-sized enterprises. Its unique platform provides centrally managed, solutions, including VoIP, over a private, nationwide network, with local dial tone available in over 5,800 local calling areas. Smoothstone is a Cisco Powered Network member and is the oldest managed VoIP company in the U.S.

For more information, visit http://www.smoothstone.com or call 800/773-3037 or 502/315-5177.