Contact:
Rick Segrest
Digium, Inc.
(256) 428-6200
rsegrest@digium.com
Janine Savarese
MRB Public Relations
(732) 758-1100 Ext. 103
jsavarese@mrb-pr.com
HUNTSVILLE, AL and CHICAGO, IL — (June 5, 2006) — Digium® Inc. the original creator of Asterisk® and pioneer of open source telephony, today announced a major upgrade of its Asterisk Business Edition™, the professional-grade version of Asterisk, the industry's first open source PBX. Asterisk offers a strategic, highly cost-effective approach to voice and data transport over TDM, switched, and Ethernet architectures. The Asterisk Business Edition provides tested reliability of critical functions and features, and is tailored for small and enterprise business applications.
The upgraded release includes enhanced security and scalability provided by Ranch Network's Asterisk security code, speech recognition capabilities through the LumenVox Speech Engine, text-to-speech applications through the Cepstral Text-to-Speech System and a customized Linux distribution to simplify installation. Asterisk Business Edition B.1 will also feature built-in support for Intel Dialogic Products and Aculab Prosody X cards.
"Asterisk Business Edition has given the enterprise user a cost effective and reliable way to incorporate open source technology," said Jim Webster, director of software technologies for Digium. "This upgraded version, with enhanced security and advanced features provided by our partners, will make it even easier for businesses to opt for a telephony platform based on open source development and open standards over proprietary systems, especially in the migration to VoIP."
Asterisk Business Edition is backed by Digium's comprehensive test program and professional support team. This certified version of Asterisk provides enterprise environments with a telephony platform suitable for critical business applications. Featured third-party software products are integrated directly into the product and can be deployed on an Asterisk server. The latest version includes a full one year warranty and technical support for installation, updates, and critical issues.
"Security is a critical component for all voice solutions, especially in a business environment," said Alex Pavlovsky, president of Ranch Networks. "By integrating the Ranch Networks security code into the new version of the Asterisk Business Edition, Digium addresses many concerns with open source software."
"LumenVox's goal was to reach the innovative community of Asterisk users," said Gerd Graumann, director of business development at LumenVox. "Now, with the integration of our speech recognition technology, Business Edition customers can easily speech-enable their applications."
Digium will be demonstrating the latest version of Asterisk Business Edition B.1 during the GlobalComm Exhibition in Chicago, IL June 4th through 8th.
Pricing and Availability
The upgraded Asterisk Business Edition is priced at $995.00 and will be available from Asterisk resellers and distributors worldwide by the end of the month. For more information, please contact sales@digium.com or call 1-256-428-6262. Current Asterisk Business Edition customers are eligible for a free upgrade to the new version under their existing maintenance plan. Users can also purchase an optional one-year extended warranty.
About Digium
Digium is the creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry's first Open Source PBX and Asterisk Business Edition, the professional-grade version of Asterisk. Used in combination with Digium's PCI telephony interface cards, Asterisk offers a strategic, highly cost-effective approach to voice and data transport over IP, TDM, switched and Ethernet architectures.
Digium solutions reduce the costs of traditional TDM and VoIP implementations through open source, standards-based software and innovative hardware solutions, including legacy PBX, IVR, auto attendant, and next generation gateways, media servers, and application servers. Digium hardware supports traditional voice and data protocols, and packet protocols such as IAX™ (Inter-Asterisk eXchange), and SIP VoIP.
Digium provides a highly refined selection of quality hardware and software products, developed and implemented using innovative engineering techniques (primarily open source development). A full range of professional services complement these product lines, including consulting, technical support, and customer software development services. The open source communications revolution is here, and Digium is leading the way.
About Asterisk
Code for Asterisk, originally written by Mark Spencer of Digium Inc., has been contributed from open source software engineers around the world. It supports a wide range of TDM protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces. It also supports US and European standard signaling types used in standard business phone systems, allowing it to bridge between next-generation voice-data integrated networks and existing infrastructure. Using the IAX Voice over IP protocol, Asterisk merges voice and data traffic seamlessly across disparate networks. Asterisk is available as open source under the GPL, and from Digium in the professional Asterisk Business Edition package, or under commercial license terms.
The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk, Asterisk SCF, Switchvox, Asterisk Business Edition, AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Appliance and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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