Ericsson's ENGINE delivers world's first commercial voice over ATM in Spain

Ericsson's ENGINE delivers world's first commercial voice over ATM network in Spain The world's first commercial voice over ATM telephone call was transmitted between two cities in Spain; Madrid and Malaga, on January 22. Since that day, live voice traffic between operator Telefónica's Madrid, Seville and Malaga exchanges has gone through Ericsson's scalable ATM switch, AXD 301. This major step has been taken in fulfillment of the ENGINE contract signed with Telefónica late last year. Three switches have been upgraded and Ericsson's ENGINE multi-service network is now handling commercial traffic in Telefónica's transit network. This includes voice, dial-up modem calls and ISDN connections. The telecom-grade quality of the traffic being routed through the data network is excellent, according to Telefónica and their users. Another two switches in Spain will be upgraded to ENGINE in February. The ENGINE solution gives operators a future-proof transition path to evolve their circuit-switched networks to a multi-service ATM and IP based packet network. The solution was chosen by the Spanish operator Telefónica late last year and is an important step in efficiently integrating Telefónica's voice and datacom services into a unified multi-service network. With its ENGINE family of products, Ericsson has created a powerful, data- enabled, next-generation multi-service network offering for existing operators. The ENGINE concept efficiently transitions operators' current circuit-switched networks into a single next generation wireline network, based on ATM and IP packet switching technologies. The ENGINE network combines Ericsson's versatile AXE switching system and highly scalable AXD 301 ATM switch with media gateways and management applications to meet a variety of service and business requirements for today's operators. Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecom world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Johan Wiklund, Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 70 560 0134; E-mail: johan.wiklund@lme.ericsson.se Mitch Lewis, General Manager and Director of Marketing Ericsson Wireline Systems Phone: +46 70 519 0130; E-mail: mitch.lewis@etx.ericsson.se Company Information Telefónica is the leading private telecom operator in Spain and in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. With a turnover of USD 18,7 billion in 1998, Telefónica is one of the ten largest telecom operators in the world with more than 36 million fixed lines and almost 11 million mobile. Its current market capitalization is USD 85,8 billion. About ENGINE The Ericsson vision for future networks sees a new type of robust, multi- service network infrastructure based on new packet-switching technologies and designed for realtime services. The ENGINE solutions are capable of carrying large and growing volumes of bit traffic and coping with the network interconnection requirements of deregulated and competitive telecom environments. The technologies used in this architecture, and the architecture itself, are fully optimized to achieve the lowest possible operational costs, and the greatest possible revenue opportunities for operators. To learn more about Ericsson's suite of multi-service network solutions, ENGINE, please visit: http://www.ericsson.se/ngn/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/23/20000223BIT00270/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/23/20000223BIT00270/bit0002.pdf