Parlay enables explosion in communication applications

Parlay enables explosion in communication applications Expands Membership; Incorporates As Non-Profit San Ramon, CA, USA, June 7, 2000 - The Parlay Group announced today that it has incorporated as a non-profit corporation, and that it is soliciting participation from a broad range of new members. The inaugural meeting for prospective members will be held in Boston, Massachusetts on June 27 and June 28. The Parlay Group's objective is to promote industry acceptance of the Parlay APIs. The APIs are designed to enable carriers and independent software vendors to write applications to provide services across wireless, Internet, and wireline networks. Faster time-to-market and less complex development cycles are some of the key benefits of the Parlay APIs. The current members of the Parlay Group are AT&T, BT, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Siemens AG and Ulticom. "The Parlay Group has achieved much since its inception in 1998, notably the Parlay Specifications," said Steve Davis, President of the Parlay Group and Vice President of R&D at Ulticom. "Many companies around the world have already made membership inquiries and we expect the Parlay Group to grow dramatically. We expect our new members to contribute significantly as we evolve the APIs and spur their deployment globally." The Parlay Group has announced the future direction of its work and key objectives. These include the realization and implementation of the Parlay APIs; the expansion of the technical scope of Parlay both to match the emergence of new protocols and to address the need for APIs for new application areas; and the expansion of the membership of The Parlay Group, to include the applications hosting and IT communities as well as the communications industry. This includes network providers, and network equipment vendors, as well as ASPs, ISVs, software developers, enterprises, and others. Interested parties may visit www.parlay.org for further information. "The Parlay APIs are a significant development in today's environment, which stresses application portability and network independence," said Mark Tempelmeyer, Vice President, Solution Technologies, IBM. "Using the Open APIs, application developers, ASPs, ISVs and others should introduce new communications applications at an ever accelerating pace. The list of companies involved with the Parlay Group and the development of the APIs is impressive and we applaud the effort." Founded in 1998, the Parlay Group focused initial development of its APIs on functions such as call control, messaging, and security. The group first demonstrated a Parlay service in the UK and USA in December 1998, and has since used industry feedback to refine its specifications. The current Parlay Specification paves the way forward in developing usable, real-world product implementations of the APIs. The specification has been published at www.parlay.org. For further information, please contact the following: AT&T Kevin Compton, Public Relations Phone: +1 650 463 7069 mailto:kcompton@att.com BT Corporate Newsroom 24hr number National: +44 020 7236 5369 Cisco Systems, Inc. Catherine Stewart, Public Relations Manager, Service Provider Line of Business Phone: +1 408 853 7991 mailto:castewar@cisco.com Ericsson Helena Norrman, Press Officer, Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 8 719 3829, +46 70 344 40 88 mailto:helena.norrman@lme.ericsson.se IBM Kim T. Nguyen (mailto:ktnguyen@us.ibm.com) Communications Manager IBM Communications Sector Phone: +1 415 545 2187 (direct); +1 888 397 0651 (pager); Text: 3970651@skytel.com Lucent Technologies Rich Teplitsky, Media Relations Phone: +1 908 582 5700 mailto:rteplitsky@lucent.com Microsoft Francine Plaza, PLAZApr for Microsoft Phone: +1 561 477 9762 mailto:plaza_pr@gate.net Bob Pike, Director of Business Development ICU Corporate Phone: +44 1189093241 mailto:bobpike@microsoft.com Siemens AG Marion Bludszuweit, Information and Communication Networks, Press department Phone: +49 89 722 47228 mailto:marion.bludszuweit@uk.siemens.de Ulticom, Inc. Deidre Watters, Director of Marketing Communications Phone: +1 856 787 2788, +1 888 295-6664 mailto:deidre.watters@ulticom.com Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on the Parlay group, please visit the Web pages below: http://www.parlay.org http://www.att.com http://www.bt.com http://www.cisco.com http://www.ericsson.com http://www.ibm.com http://www.lucent.com http://www.microsoft.com http://www.siemens.de/ic/networks/ http://www.ulticom.com