Telefónica O2 Germany Selects Acme Packet to Deliver IMS-based Residential VoIP Services

Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, today announced that Telefónica O₂ Germany has selected Acme Packet’s session border controllers (SBCs) to provide key IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) functionality at its access and interconnect borders. The Acme Packet Net-Net® Session Director (SD) enables Telefónica O₂ Germany to deploy a secure and interoperable IMS network supporting residential retail and wholesale VoIP services and IP interconnects with other service providers.

Directly, and through its wholesale partners, Telefónica O₂ Germany currently provides fixed telephony and DSL services to approximately 1.4 million customers. The Net-Net SBCs are part of an IMS next-generation network that will replace an older VoIP platform and enable Telefónica O₂ Germany to offer VoIP services to its residential customers and wholesale hosted residential VoIP services—Telefónica Voice4Carrier and Telefónica Voice4SIPOwner—to other service providers. Telefónica O₂ Germany also uses the Net-Net SBCs to securely interconnect with other tier 1 service providers for off-net call origination and termination.

Telefónica O₂ Germany selected Acme Packet’s Net-Net 4500 SD to meet critical 3GPP IMS functional requirements at the access and interconnect borders of its network. At the subscriber access border, the Net-Net 4500 SD integrates the Proxy-Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF), the initial SIP signaling contact point for subscriber endpoints, and the Access Gateway Function (AGW) for controlling subscriber media flows. At the interconnect border to other service provider networks, the Net-Net 4500 SD integrates the Interconnect Border Control Function (I-BCF), the SIP signaling point for sessions leaving or coming into the network, and the Transition Gateway (TrGW) for controlling associated media flows. Both the access and interconnect SBCs include a Signaling Firewall, a vital function that protects the SBC itself and core IMS service elements, which is missing from the IMS architecture.

Net-SAFE®, Acme Packet’s security framework, provides denial of service (DoS) attack prevention, topology hiding and access control to protect Telefónica O₂ Germany’s IMS network and ensure service availability. In addition, the Net-Net 4500 SD also provides multiple encryption capabilities, including IPsec using IMS-AKA and Transport Layer Security (TLS), for secured sessions between subscriber endpoints and Telefónica O₂ Germany’s IMS services network. Acme Packet SBCs maximize the service reach of Telefónica O₂ Germany using hosted NAT traversal, SIP signaling normalization as well as interworking between its next-generation IMS and older VoIP platforms. Telefónica O₂ Germany uses Acme Packet’s flexible session admission control policies to prevent core network overloads and assure customer SLAs. To help ensure regulatory compliance, the Net-Net SD provides signaling and media replication for lawful intercept and a location server interface to obtain and append location information for emergency calls.

"Acme Packet’s market-leading SBCs, combined with the company’s experience in delivering essential IMS functionality, made them the best choice for us,” commented Karsten Schroeder for Telefónica O₂ Germany. "Acme Packet is an integral part of our next-generation network migration, providing the necessary tools to roll out flexible, reliable and scalable IMS-based services to our residential retail and wholesale customers.”

"Acme Packet is helping service providers around the world solve critical challenges in delivering seamless, high-quality, interactive communication services with IMS networks,” said Seamus Hourihan, vice president of marketing and product management for Acme Packet. "With Acme Packet session border controllers, Telefónica O2 Germany is able to protect its IMS network while maximizing its service reach and quality for its customers.”

About Acme Packet

Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, enables the delivery of trusted, first-class interactive communications—voice, video and multimedia sessions—and data services across IP network borders. Our Net-Net family of session border controllers, multiservice security gateways and session routing proxies supports multiple applications in service provider, enterprise and contact center networks—from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed-mobile convergence. They satisfy critical security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in wireline, cable and wireless networks; and support multiple protocols—SIP, H.323, MGCP/NCS, H.248 and RTSP—and multiple border points—service provider access and interconnect, and enterprise access and trunking. Our products have been selected by more than 675 customers in 95 countries. They include 29 of the top 30, and 89 of the top 100 service providers in the world, and 6 of the Fortune 25. For more information, contact us at +1 781.328.4400, or visit www.acmepacket.com.

About Telefónica O₂ Germany GmbH & Co. OHG

Telefónica O2 Germany GmbH & Co. OHG belongs to Telefónica Europe and is part of the Spanish telecommunication group Telefónica S.A. The Company offers its German private and business customers postpaid and prepaid mobile telecom products as well as innovative mobile data services based on the GPRS and UMTS technologies. In addition, the integrated communications provider also offers DSL fixed network telephony and high-speed internet. Telefónica Europe has more than 47 million mobile and fixed network customers in Great Britain, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.

Acme Packet Safe Harbor Statement

Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may relate, among other things, to our position in the session border control market, our expected financial and operating results, ,our ability to establish and maintain intellectual property rights, our ability to build and grow Acme Packet, the benefits and advantages of our products, including the ability to maximize service reach and quality for customers and any enhancements or new features, services and programs, and our ability to achieve our goals, plans and objectives. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These include, but are not limited to: difficulties in growing our customer base, difficulties leveraging market opportunities, difficulties providing solutions that meet the needs of customers, difficulties in integrating an acquired business, poor product sales, long sales cycles, difficulty developing new products, difficulty in relationships with vendors and partners, higher risk in international operations, difficulty managing rapid growth, and increased competition. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially form those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors” in such filings.