Pingtel chooses Global IP Sound speech processing
software for Pingtel xpressa IP phone

GIPS technology on IP phone to set new standard for audio and speech quality

WOBURN, Mass., and SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2001 Global IP Sound
(GIPS), the leader in sound processing software for real-time,
interactive communications over packet networks, and Pingtel,
creator of the world's first Java-based, voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone,
announced today an agreement that will deliver high-fidelity audio
over IP telephony that far surpasses audio possible over PSTN.

Under terms of the partnership agreement, Pingtel will license and
integrate the GIPS SoundWare solutions, NetEQ, GIPS Enhanced G.711
and iPCM-wb (wideband), into the Pingtel xpressa SIP (Session
Initiation Protocol) phone appliance. The announcement was made at
the Voice over the Net (VON) conference in Phoenix.

According to various surveys and market research, the main obstacle
for wide VoIP adoption is poor sound quality. With the combination of
the GIPS SoundWare and the Pingtel phone appliance, this barrier will
be removed.

"Pingtel is among the first IP phone manufacturers to incorporate
GIPS SoundWare solutions and will be the first to market with an
integrated GIPS solution," said Jay Batson, chief executive officer
and co-founder, Pingtel. "The use of the GIPS iPCM-wb technology
with the Pingtel xpressa IP phone will offer users a completely new
communication experience and will set a new standard for telephony."

Paolo Spada, chief executive officer of Global IP Sound, said, "GIPS
is proud to be chosen as the speech and audio technology partner for
the very popular Pingtel xpressa IP phone. The unique quality of our
SoundWare complements the leading-edge features and design of the
Pingtel phone. The new GIPS-enabled Pingtel phone will deliver
sound quality that significantly surpasses PSTN quality, even under
adverse network conditions."

The Pingtel xpressa phone abandons the traditional host-dumb terminal
architectural model used by circuit-switched PBX networks and nearly
all IP PBXs and IP phones, all of which are centralized, closed
environments. As a Java-based software applications platform, Pingtel
xpressa embraces the Internet model and its technologies. Like a
browser-based PC, Pingtel xpressa runs applications that are
delivered over the network from any number of servers accessing new
network-hosted services and applications not possible with dumb PBX
and IP phones.

The GIPS SoundWare solutions are installed on the VoIP edge devices
as enhancements to standard codecs or as adjacent sound and speech
processing software. The "plug and play" approach ensures high
end-to-end sound quality and improved network performance. On IP
phones, GIPS can deliver sound quality that significantly surpasses
PSTN quality. For gateways, GIPS provides Edge Device QoS solutions
that are flexible, versatile, scalable and vendor independent.

About Global IP Sound
Global IP Sound (GIPS) was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1999, and
has a team of world leading speech processing and IP telephony
experts. The company develops speech and audio processing software
for real-time, interactive communications over packet networks. GIPS
enhanced standard implementations and new speech processing
technology are specifically designed for VoIP. They provide
dramatically increased robustness to degraded network conditions, as
well as better than PSTN sound quality and fidelity in end-to-end IP
communications. More information on GIPS is available at
http://www.globalipsound.com

About Pingtel

Pingtel powers a renaissance in voice services and applications with
the world's first intelligent Java-based, voice-over-SIP phone
appliances, softphones and management for service providers and
enterprises. As the delivery platform for next-generation hosted IP
voice services and premise-based IP PBX systems, Pingtel's
award-winning xpressa phones make today's voice features much easier
to use, enable a whole new collection of services and applications,
and improve the way people work and business operate. More
information on Pingtel is available at www.pingtel.com.


NetEQ, GIPS Enhanced G.711 and iPCM-wb are trademarks of Global IP Sound Inc
Pingtel and Pintel xpressa are trademarks of Pingtel Corporation.

For additional information, contact:

Paolo Spada, CEO
Global IP Sound Inc.
900 Kearny Street
Suite 500
San Francisco, CA, 94133
(415) 397 2555
e-mail: paolo.spada@globalipsound.com

Seth Kaplan
Kaplan Associates Public Relations
(978) 443 7099 or (508) 494 3851
e-mail: sjkaplan@bigfoot.com