About

SIPjack removes the challenges faced by VoIP carriers that are selling to consumers

San Jose/Toronto - March 10, 2004 — Arcturus Networks Inc. today announced the availability of SIPjack^™, the industry’s smallest, most affordable and full-featured Analog Telephony Adaptor (ATA). The business card sized, production ready SIPjack design combined with Arcturus firmware allows OEM and ODMs to remove the biggest challenges faced by carriers delivering residential VoIP services - provisioning and ease of use.

“Increasingly, consumers are looking for converged communications systems that allow them to seamlessly transition between their lives at work, home and on the road,” said Jeff Dionne CEO of Arcturus Networks. “But current adaptors don’t meet their needs - they either have a big-box form factor, provide limited features and configuration options, or are cost prohibitive. Our SIPjack design is portable, scalable and affordable enough for the mass consumer market.”

By using a SIPjack any residential broadband connection can become a phone line, creating whole new opportunities for Cable MSOs, VoIP carriers and other broadband service providers. For consumers this means portability, improved bundled service packages and affordable long-distance calling plans. Recent announcements by major broadband carriers cite the intention to roll out consumer VoIP aggressively over the next 18 months.

Easy installation and management SIPjack includes a sophisticated automatic configuration and management system that is compatible with numerous network topologies, including behind NAT firewalls. The system virtually eliminates the need for service provider intervention during the installation process and enables broad management access to each control point in the device. Consumers merely plug in the device and within a short period of time the phone rings to tell them their phone number is registered and service is now available.

To place a call with SIPjack, the user simply picks up their regular analog telephone and dials the desired number. SIPjack translates the touch-tones, digitally encodes the analog telephone signal and routes the voice stream across the Internet. SIPjack devices can connect to any carrier’s PSTN gateway, allowing calls to legacy phones as well as peer-to-peer or proxied SIP connections.

In addition, SIPjack offers a variety of compelling features typically only found in higher-end telephone switching hardware, including call routing, call schedules, rules, buddy lists, programmable speed dials, configurable hotlines and various voice mail options including the ability for users’ to have their voicemail messages sent by email.

“In developing this product we sought extensive feedback from OEMs, MSOs and VoIP carriers. They overwhelmingly told us consumers need a device that is easy to install, will automatically configure, is portable and inexpensive,” said Rich Larsen, COO of Arcturus. “SIPjack is designed to squarely address these issues and bring new features to the home phone, making the roll-out of mass-market consumer VoIP well within the grasp of any MSO or Carrier.”

Technical specifications

SIPjack is standards compliant product that can be delivered in a variety of configurations including one or more RJ45 Ethernet or RJ11 telephone connectors and a power connector. SIPjack is driven by a low-cost ARM^®core processor with DSP subsystem and powered by uClinux^™.

Arcturus has applied its own field-proven Residential Gateway software to equip the device with a fully integrated web and SNMP management infrastructure, SIP, SDP, RTP, RTCP, G-series codecs (with optional ILBC or GSM), ENUM, various NAT traversal techniques including STUN, rport, symmetric RTP, various QoS schemes including 5 levels of ToS. The SIPjack product family can also include additional telephony, network, security and firewall applications.

SIPjack can be used on LAN or WLAN environments and the device is locally managed by a simple web based user interface or remotely via an SNMP network management system. SIPjack also includes an innovative and interactive voice prompt system that provides an additional, easily accessible end user interface.

Pricing and Availability

SIPjack is currently available for license to OEMs, ODMs and Carriers. Arcturus recommends the SIPjack design for products with an MSRP of under $65.

SIPjack Product Family

The SIPjack product family will include a multi-port LAN router, wireless access point base station and combination cordless handset.