Industry Momentum Grows Around Joint Acme Packet - MetaSwitch Solution for Carrier-Class Voice over IP

Incumbent, competitive and municipal service providers turn to Acme Packet and MetaSwitch to deliver secure, high-quality IP interactive communications

Burlington, Ma, Alameda, Ca: June 2008. Acme Packet® (NASDAQ: APKT), the leader in session border control solutions, and MetaSwitch, a leading vendor of next-generation carrier switching and application solutions, today announced that more than 35 service providers in North America, Europe and the Caribbean have deployed a joint solution from the companies to deliver advanced, trusted communications over carrier IP networks. Encompassing incumbent, competitive and municipal service providers, these customers include BTC Broadband, Independence Light & Power, Telecommunications, POPP.com and TeleBarbados. The growing market traction behind the Acme Packet - MetaSwitch solution is the result of an established relationship between both companies, focused on ongoing interoperability, closely coordinated customer support and joint sales efforts.

BTC Broadband is an independent telecommunications company offering cutting-edge broadband communications services to 8000 residents in and around Tulsa, and other areas of northeastern Oklahoma. Using the latest fiber-to-the-premises technology the integrated communications provider is deploying a MetaSwitch class 4/5 softswitch to deliver hosted PBX services to business customers, as well as SIP peering for long distance and VoIP-based telephony services to residential subscribers. Acme Packet’s Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) protect the core of the MetaSwitch-powered network from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, in addition to offering access control and topology hiding. Acme Packet’s SBCs enabled BTC to quickly re-provision customers, which was critical in its CALEA implementation for tracking and monitoring customers.

Independence Light & Power, Telecommunications (IL&P, T), the municipal utility formed in 2000 for the city of Independence, Iowa, provides residential and business customers of northeastern Iowa with innovative telecommunication services. MetaSwitch’s class 4/5 softswitch platform was deployed in 2006, enabling IL&P, T to deliver advanced digital telephony services like simultaneous ring, and find-me, follow-me to its subscribers. With Acme Packet’s Net-Net SBC, IL&P, T, secures and protects its MetaSwitch core network, while leveraging control and maximizing the reach of its VoIP services.

POPP.com, formerly POPP Telecom, is a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offering voice, Internet and data communications services to businesses in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro area. POPP.com turned to MetaSwitch and Acme Packet to provide business subscribers with hosted VoIP services, including automatic call distribution. Based on MetaSwitch’s core switching and application platforms, POPP.com can offer subscribers advanced call-center features to handle inbound telephony traffic. Acme Packet’s Net-Net SBCs provide critical security and control features, protecting the VoIP network and maximizing service reach, as well as helping secure VoIP peering with other service providers.

TeleBarbados was launched in 2006 as one of the first competitive operators in the newly-liberalized telecommunications market in Barbados and it is using products from Acme Packet and MetaSwitch to support its digital voice services. The joint solution features MetaSwitch’s class 5 softswitch deployed within the datacenter to enable robust hosted business-grade voice and data services and Acme Packet’s SBCs to provide critical security features for network protection, as well as hosted NAT traversal and signaling protocol normalization to maximize service reach.

“We have worked extensively with MetaSwitch over the years to ensure interoperability and smooth integration,” said Seamus Hourihan, Acme Packet’s vice president of marketing and product management. “MetaSwitch’s next-generation switching platform and Acme Packet’s session border controllers provide a proven solution that addresses the challenges service providers face as they migrate to VoIP and next generation networks.”

Covering the full breadth of next-generation network elements - including core session control, media/signaling gateway, application server and session border control functions - the combination of Acme Packet Net-Net SBCs and MetaSwitch products scales to meet the network migration requirements of carriers of all sizes. Highlights of the joint solution include a robust VoIP network security, thanks to Acme Packet’s Net-SAFE® security capabilities such as access control lists, call rate limiting and topology hiding; support for true Class 5 features over both legacy TDM and next-generation access in the MetaSwitch softswitch product line; and enhanced IP-based services hosted on the MetaSphere application suite. Service interoperability between Acme Packet and MetaSwitch services is fully supported over both session initiation protocol (SIP), H.248, media gateway control protocol (MGCP), and network-based call signaling (NCS), with H.323 translation provided by the Acme Packet Net-Net SBC for interoperability with legacy VoIP networks.

“Carriers of all kinds are looking to a new group of industry leaders to work together to enable the delivery of cutting-edge services and enable the migration to open IP application platforms,” said Andy Randall, MetaSwitch vice president of marketing. “The experience gathered from hundreds of packet voice deployments puts MetaSwitch and Acme Packet ahead of the previous generation of vendors who built the legacy networks that are now reaching end of life.”

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Statements contained herein that are not historical fact may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements may relate, among other things, to our position in the session border control market, our expected financial and operating results, our ability to establish and maintain intellectual property rights, our ability to build and grow Acme Packet, the benefits and advantages of our products, including any enhancements or new features, services and programs and our ability to achieve our goals, plans and objectives. Such forward-looking statements do not constitute guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These include, but are not limited to: difficulties in growing our customer base, difficulties leveraging market opportunities, difficulties providing solutions that meet the needs of customers, poor product sales, long sales cycles, difficulty developing new products, difficulty in relationships with vendors and partners, higher risk in international operations, difficulty managing rapid growth, and increased competition. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements are contained in our recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in such filings.

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