CTIA Wireless 2008

Acme Packet Makes Move to Expand Role in Build Out of IP Infrastructure

| Apr 1, 2008 | IP Services Infrastructure | Show update

| Analyst: Joe McGarvey

Current Perspective: Positive Vendor Importance: Moderate Market Impact: Moderate

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Event Summary

March 31, 2008 – Acme Packet announced the deployment of its Open Session Routing (OSR) architecture and products and an ecosystem of companies for delivering SIP-based interactive communications within and between mobile, fixed and transit networks. The OSR features the Acme Packet Net-Net Session Router (SR), a session routing proxy that works in conjunction with best of breed routing databases and relieves existing signaling routing elements in the network of session routing functions. Acme Packet says the OSR and SR are operational in several Tier 1 service provider networks around the world.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Acme Packet’s revelation of deploying its Open Session Routing (OSR) architecture in the networks of several unnamed Tier 1 carriers, as the announcement indicates that Acme Packet is attracting customers to the company’s solution designed to provide a centralize location in the network for routing signaling. This will also create additional market opportunities for the Acme Packet Session Router (SR), the centerpiece of the OSR architecture that has largely taken a secondary position in Acme Packet’s product portfolio to its session border controllers (SBC). The biggest downside of the OSR announcement is that it brings Acme Packet’s product family into the functional domain of softswitches, a positioning the company has avoided in the past and one that it has cited as a weakness among competitors.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Acme Packet, as the company’s product line responsible for the bulk of revenue generation will remain SBCs and security gateways for the immediate future. The OSR architecture and the SR provide Acme Packet with a mechanism for penetrating further into the signaling infrastructure of the company’s hundreds of service provider customers. However, the company’s fortunes will not slack appreciably if the SR in unable to attract a significant number of customers.

• Market Impact: Moderate on competitors in the SBC, softswitch and signaling routing segments of the telecommunications industry, as Acme Packet’s OSR architecture is the most recent of many efforts to provide a mechanism for service providers that have adopted IP-based session control to scale their networks gracefully and efficiently. Acme Packet, which is bringing an open approach to scaling next-generation signaling environments by leveraging its compatibility with multiple third-party routing databases and products, joins Tekelec, Sonus, NextPoint and others in offering a solution to do so.

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