CITEL Technologies Announces Channel Partner Program for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom Reseller Channel will deliver the World's First IP Handset Gateway for Migrating Traditional Digital PBX Telephones to IP PBXs Across Multiple Ve

CITELChoice Partner Program (CPP) for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom offers converged Voice and Data Resellers a new sales opportunity with--CITEL's new CITELlink(TM) IP Handset Gateway--the world's first handset gateway to provide IP PBX interoperability for legacy PBX telephones across multiple vendor lines.

CITEL Technologies Announces Channel Partner Program for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom

Reseller Channel will deliver the World's First IP Handset Gateway for Migrating Traditional Digital PBX Telephones to IP PBXs Across Multiple Vendor Product Lines

(Seattle, Washington, USA and Nottingham, England--June 6, 2002)--CITEL Technologies, a global provider of IP telephony and communications solutions, announced today the CITELChoice Partner Program (CPP) for the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. CPP offers converged Voice and Data Resellers a new sales opportunity with--CITEL's new CITELlink(TM) IP Handset Gateway--the world's first handset gateway to provide IP PBX interoperability for legacy PBX telephones across multiple vendor lines. Voice and Data Resellers are now choosing IP telephony products over traditional legacy PBX offerings because of their open architecture and cost-effective applications such as unified messaging and Web browser-based system administration, that normally require expensive add-on equipment for legacy PBXs.

The CITELlink IP Handset Gateway communicates in legacy PBX protocol to traditional telephone handsets and Internet Protocol (IP) to the IP PBX, and performs the translation between the two simultaneously across multiple vendor products. Until the introduction of CITELlink, enterprise customers were "locked" into the (expensive, cumbersome or unavailable) migration products or plans from their incumbent PBX vendor. CITELlink gateways are fundamentally changing the PBX industry, so that customers can now pick and chose among the best IP communications solutions that meet their evolving needs, while reducing the cost and complexity of migrating to IP telephony.

IP telephony in the Enterprise continues to gain momentum, with rapidly growing market acceptance of IP PBX solutions. Synergy Research Group is forecasting the VoIP equipment market to grow to $17 billion by 2005. The Gartner Group also forecasts that IP telephony will win 50 percent annual market share by 2004. With more than 300 million legacy PBX telephone handsets in the market today, this represents a significant savings for enterprise customers worldwide who can now use CITELlink as an alternative solution in their upgrade plans.

"Through the CITELChoice Partner Program and the availability of CITELlink gateways, CITEL Technologies will help accelerate IP PBX sales in our local market," says John Graven, president and COO of Computer Telephony Concepts. "We have been waiting for legacy PBX vendors to provide IP telephony products, but many are designed to only protect and defend their own embedded base. This has slowed the release of competitive IP telephony solutions. The CITELlink product now
creates substantial savings for established customer sites migrating from legacy PBX systems to a next-generation solution. This allows our sales team to target our legacy customer base and close significantly more sales," adds Graven.

CPP has already achieved remarkable success with beta sites, and more than two hundred Voice and Data Resellers are currently engaged in distribution negotiations with CITEL. Fifty resellers are already qualified and registered to begin offering CITELlink gateways. CPP dealers will initially work with Nortel Norstar customers for the first CITELlink product release in June 2002. CITEL and its CPP dealers are looking for Norstar customers who are eager to receive a clear migration path to a superior IP telephony solution with advanced features and benefits. Voice and Data Resellers that are interested in becoming a CPP dealer can contact CITEL's sales team at sales@citel.com.

"We have seen a great deal of interest among Resellers for solutions, like CITEL's, that address the enterprise customer's need for reliable and scalable technology that will help accelerate and support the migration of next-generation communications," says John Drolet, CITEL Technologies' vice president of worldwide sales. "We believe that CITEL's gateways will empower Resellers to fully capitalize on this sizable opportunity. Resellers can now minimize a customer's disruption to the workplace, while delivering maximum communications benefits with IP applications much easier than the 'forklift' migrations they have deployed before the introduction of our gateway solutions."

Drolet adds, "CITELlink products also give customers and resellers a new freedom of choice, which essentially levels the sales field and opens up the previously closed PBX industry for leading IP telephony vendors, providing entry into already established customer sites. This is a huge opportunity to accelerate the adoption of IP telephony, which has largely been implemented in green-field sites until now."

CITELlink(TM) IP Handset Gateways Unlock the Power of IP Telephony

CITEL Technologies' evolutionary gateway migration approach enables enterprise customers to utilize their traditional telephone handsets to receive enhanced computer telephony features such as unified messaging, telecommuter and remote user support, and directory dialing capabilities, which come as standard applications in many IP PBXs. CITELlink IP Handset Gateways empower IP-PBXs with the ability to communicate with and support legacy PBX digital telephone handsets, across multiple vendor product lines.

Customers Receive Benefit of New IP Migration Opportunity

Enterprise customers can now retain their familiar and reliable desktop telephone experience, while receiving a new IP telephony backbone for their system that delivers more cost-effective applications and services. They can also save as much as 40-60 percent by retaining their existing investment in
telephone handsets and associated wiring infrastructure, eliminating the need for retraining employees, and reducing the need for Local Area Network (LAN) upgrades usually required to support IP telephony. The first CITELlink gateway, for the Nortel Norstar product line, is a "slip in card" and will begin shipping in June 2002. There are an estimated 15 million Norstar telephone handsets in use today, worldwide. Further breaking down the barriers of migration, CITEL will continuously provide new gateway integrations for traditional telephone systems and leading IP architectures worldwide.

A Major Incremental Sales Opportunity for IP PBX Vendors and Resellers

CITELlink gateways significantly reduce the cost and complexity of migrating existing customer sites to IP Telephony, enabling vendors and resellers to rapidly expand their IP PBX customer base. Before the CITELlink, Resellers only had the incumbent PBX provider as a source for new customer solutions. Resellers now have a new incremental sales opportunity, with CITELlink, to migrate their customer base to new IP platforms or enter a particular competitor's PBX base. Using CITELlink, sixteen telephone handset users can be migrated to IP telephony in just a few minutes. CITELlink currently scales to 16-ports per unit and multiple units can be linked together to support larger enterprise capacities. The manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) is $2,000 (US) per 16-port unit, or $125 (US) per user. Since CITEL Technologies sells through distribution, it does not control actual sales price.

About CITEL Technologies

CITEL Technologies is a global provider of unique IP telephony and converged communications solutions, which bridge the two worlds of legacy PBX telephones and next-generation IP-PBX systems. CITEL works in partnership with world leading telecom equipment manufacturers and suppliers with the goal of simplifying and accelerating the transition to next-generation communications solutions. Since 1995, CITEL has developed a number of award-winning telephony products and the company has now pioneered the new product category of Handset Gateways. CITEL Technologies is a private company with offices in Nottingham (England), Providence, Rhode Island (USA), and Seattle, Washington (USA). For more information, please visit www.citel.com.

For information, product photographs, and interviews please contact the following:
CITEL Corporate Communications: Monica Drake, global director of corporate communications
Tel: 206-686-3800, ext. 219 (USA) or Toll Free: (877)-248-3587 (USA)
Email: pr@citel.com
Web site: www.citel.com

CITEL and CITELlink are trademarks of CITEL Technologies Ltd. Other names may be trademarks owned by third parties.

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