Lucent Technologies and Orca Interactive Partner to Deliver Market- Ready IP Television and Video Solution

Lucent Technologies and Orca Interactive Partner to Deliver Market- Ready IP Television and Video Solution

Strategic alliance includes market-ready solution and ongoing joint development to help service providers accelerate the delivery of mass market IPTV today and personalized, multimedia applications in the future

CHICAGO and MURRAY HILL, N.J., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) today announced a strategic alliance with Orca Interactive , a global market leader in developing applications for IPTV, to deliver solutions that help service providers offer secure, mass market- Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and next-generation multimedia services to end customers at any time on any device.

Leveraging Lucent's expertise in secure, carrier-class networking and leadership in broadband networks, advanced video applications, and network design and integration, and Orca's leadership in IPTV middleware and video integration, this alliance delivers a market-ready solution through a strong channel relationship. Under the multi-year agreement the companies are also collaborating on joint development to enhance service providers' ability to address the quality and control issues associated with deploying IPTV.

With this partnership Lucent continues to enhance its end-to-end integrated IPTV delivery solutions -- deployable today -- that allow carriers to cost-efficiently deliver secure and highly-reliable bundled voice, video and data services. The solutions are based on open standards, and will give consumers the ability to have access to blended lifestyle services in the near future anywhere at any time with the quality of service (QoS) that they have come to expect. Lucent has integrated Orca's RiGHTv IPTV middleware platform into its network infrastructure solutions for the delivery of video applications. Leveraging its network and application integration capabilities for multi-vendor networks, Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS) supports the solution with network design, deployment, integration and maintenance and management services to increase speed-to-market and reduce operational costs for service providers.

Service providers benefit from the Lucent solution because it allows them to get to market quickly for faster revenues and greater market penetration, leveraging their existing embedded base of IP-capable access equipment. The scalable architecture of the solution also allows service providers to save on capital and operational expenses. End users will benefit by being able to personalize services, such as on-demand video, interactive TV, and voice and video communications, on a number of devices.

"When Lucent combines our expertise with Orca's RiGHTv middleware platform, we give our customers the best IPTV delivery solution today, and lay the foundation for deploying advanced multimedia services in the future," said Rob Piconi, vice president and general manager, Broadband Solutions, Lucent Technologies. "We're a leader in delivering IPTV, and our strengths, tied to a deep understanding of both security and quality of service for carrier grade networks, represent key differentiators that are critical for our customers as they begin to deploy IPTV services. We also have an unparalleled understanding of networks -- both wireline and wireless -- and a unique vision for providing what we call "blended IP Multimedia services" over these networks. Working with Orca, a leader in IPTV middleware, we have a highly-scalable, market- ready solution that can be customized to meet our different customers' needs."

"Lucent is a leading partner for addressing the IPTV market and delivering new technologies that bring better service control to the operator, reduce the total cost of ownership and allow operators to stay ahead of the IPTV innovation curve," said Haggai Barel, CEO, Orca Interactive. "This announcement represents Orca and Lucent's significant mutual commitment to accelerating the deployment, viability, security and quality of service of IPTV and video services."

As part of the agreement, the two companies are announcing a series of joint development initiatives, including:

* A flexible, easy to program subscriber user interface (SUI) using Orca's SUI software development kit (SDK).

* Ensuring that copyrighted content is delivered securely to the right end user at the right time adhering to service level agreements.

* Managing quality of services requirements and network management integration.

* Integrating innovative Bell Labs applications with Orca's RIGHTv solution for blended lifestyle services anywhere, anytime, on any device.

* Continuing to support open standards for developing IPTV applications.

Lucent has integrated Orca into its live IPTV Solution demo in booth 64056 at SuperComm 2005, showing users how they can simply access all of their usual television and video programming anytime, anywhere, on any device and other new revenue generating multimedia applications. For more information on Lucent at SuperComm: http://www.lucentevents.com/

MORE ABOUT THE SOLUTION:

Lucent's IPTV/Video Solution enables service providers to deliver a triple play bundle of Voice, Video and Data services to their subscribers on a mass- market scale. Central to Lucent's IP video solution is the Stinger(r) DSL platform, the industry's first high performance IP-enabled DSLAM with advanced Layer 3 IP features that support robust, reliable delivery of IPTV in a wide variety of deployment scenarios and network architectures. Orca's RiGHTv middleware suite and a new set of innovative Bell Labs applications and network elements will leverage this unique Stinger functionality to provide the quality of service and service-level agreement guarantees that are essential to offer a carrier grade IPTV solution for all subscribers, anytime, anywhere. Uniting these complex technologies, applications and systems to build a flexible, scalable IP Video network is Lucent Worldwide Services' unparalleled knowledge of video technology and multi-vendor solutions integration experience.

About Lucent Technologies

Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent's customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide. For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com/.

About Orca Interactive

Orca Interactive (LSE-ORCA) is a leading provider of IPTV middleware and applications for broadband network operators and service providers. Orca enables triple-play providers to deliver a full array of attractive video- over-IP services that generate new revenue streams and strengthen customer loyalty. Leveraging a flexible telco-grade middleware platform, Orca empowers operators to deliver broadcast TV, video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), home media and other compelling interactive services. Orca's SI-enabled solutions are designed for easy outsourcing of integration services by an operator's preferred systems integrator. Orca has formed strategic partnerships with leading players across the IPTV value chain to ensure best- of-breed solutions with low total cost of ownership. For more information, please visit http://www.orcainteractive.com/

Source: Lucent Technologies

CONTACT: Jenn McManus of Lucent Technologies, +1-908-582-5703, office, +1-908-582-4383, fax, mcmanusj@lucent.com; or Tiffany Archambault of ink Communications for Orca Interactive, +1-617-488-0988, ext. 7, tiffany@theINKstudio.com

Web site: http://www.lucent.com/ http://www.orcainteractive.com/ http://www.lucentevents.com/

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