AVINTA'S "PHOENIX PROJECT" TO ACCELERATE BROADBAND ROLLOUT.

Avinta Communications, a three-year-old systems engineering company located in Sunnyvale, Calif., has introduced a unique telecommunications technology and networking architecture. The "Phoenix Project," named by Avinta, significantly simplifies the deployment, yet improves the use of broadband service in residences, multi-person living quarters and small offices.

Don Wellington, VP sales & marketing, explained: "The implementation of broadband services to the mass subscriber market has met with some inherent problems. From the service provider side, there is no clear broadband demarcation to the inside of the subscriber premise. This contributes to difficult and expensive troubleshooting. From the subscriber side, the uncertainties of self-installation for full bandwidth speed cause frustration. A key component to subscriber retention and satisfaction is the ability to easily use a voice and/or data network with their broadband service. Simple networking solutions for the mass market consumer have been hard to find.

"Broadband service providers have concerns about the QoS (Quality of Service) for digital voice channels within the subscriber premise. This QoS concern also applies to the consistency of the broadband digital bandwidth for Internet connectivity and data networking purposes. The market is fragmented with no clear direction for applying data networking solutions to consumer needs."

Avinta's Phoenix Project, using AvintaNET technologies, solves these problems. The AvintaNET solution uses intelligence based on Telecommunications instead of Computer (TCI-Telephony Computer Integration vs. CTI-Computer Telephony Integration). Avinta began the AvintaNET development process on the fundamental basis that the telephone system is a tried and true technology that has been reliable and satisfactory to the mass market. Applying POTS technology in a unique way, Avinta created a system architecture that provides both clear demarcation for the service providers as well as an easy voice and data networking for the subscriber.

During the last few months, Avinta has previewed the Phoenix Project to Regional Bell Companies, large cable operators, subsystem manufacturers and IC chip providers. The consensus evaluation is that the Phoenix Project has merit. Several companies expressed enthusiastic endorsement of Avinta's plan. Based on these meetings, Avinta is moving quickly to product implementation for the market.

The ingredients that make up the AvintaNET system architecture include a "Gateway" that is enabled to receive the broadband and distribute it into the subscriber premise. The "Gateway" would also be the "server" point for networking technologies accessing the Internet for multiple computers. The "Gateway" function ultimately could reside in the phone company's Enhanced Network Interface Device (ENID) or a cable company's Broadband Telephony Interface (BTI).

In addition, telephone station sets with "AvintaNET Built-In" would be controllers for both voice and data networks. With the TCI concept, the AvintaNET-enabled station sets (PETS-Plain Enhanced Telephone Set) provide the phone extension number for the voice network and the data terminal address for the computer network. The technology that enables the extensions and addresses is proprietary and owned by Avinta Communications.

A key factor to this concept is not needing a central network controller (switch, router, etc.) for the phones or the computers. AvintaNET technology is based on a "peer-to-peer" concept. This distributed system architecture for unified voice and data networking is another Avinta proprietary property.

Wellington continued: "While the overall 'Phoenix Project' can be difficult to grasp by the non-technical person, the benefits are clear: easy installation and simple trouble-shooting leading to a reliable voice and data network for the mass market. Avinta's solution taps the continued demand for broadband networking of phones and computers in residences, small offices, dormitories and other shared multi-person environments. Both the service provider and the mass market consumer will benefit from this win-win situation."

Avinta Communications is a privately held systems engineering company specializing in voice and data networking technology for the SOHO market. For more information visit the Web site at www.avinta.com.

For more information, call 408/734-5295 ext. 59 or visit http://www.avinta.com.

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