NeuStar Announces Global Initiative

October 24, 2005; 01:44 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – NeuStar, Inc. (NYSE: NSR), a provider of essential neutral third-party interoperability services to the global communications industry, today introduced SIP-IX, the first comprehensive suite of services designed to enable direct network-to-network peering between trading partners for voice, video and content services using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based technologies such as IP multimedia (IMS) and VoIP.

Additionally, NeuStar announced a global initiative that includes exclusive relationships with top Internet Exchange Providers Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) and TELEHOUSE. NeuStar also announced a relationship with the non-profit Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX). These initial relationships form the beginning of a community of neutral infrastructure service providers to deliver SIP-IX.

SIP-IX will build on the existing IP network-level peering foundation provided by global Internet Exchange Provider partners, and will provide a higher layer of services essential to enable network operators to exchange SIP traffic for advanced services. With SIP-IX, network operators offering SIP-based applications, including VoIP, IMS, Multimedia Instant Messaging, video calls and content, and Push-to-Talk over Cellular, will be able utilize existing IP network peering facilities to originate, terminate and share calls or sessions for mobile, fixed and broadband communications.

SIP-IX will offer an “a la carte” suite of neutral application peering services that include:

Policy-enabled shared routing and addressing directory services (based in existing in-production private ENUM services);

Provisioning and OSS services;

Identity authentication services to minimize application misuse such as VoIP spam and caller misrepresentation; 

Inter-network quality of service offerings to provide the necessary level of assurance of network and application integrity between peering networks;

End-to-end firewall and NAT traversal support; and

Traffic accounting and settlement information to facilitate current and evolving business relationships between network operators.

AMS-IX, Equinix and TELEHOUSE will each integrate SIP-IX with their IP peering infrastructures, creating a combined service delivery platform at the Internet Exchange Provider locations that enable network operators to peer SIP-based traffic, added to existing peering and collocation services that the Providers will continue to offer. 

“Amsterdam Internet Exchange has the highest amount of peers anywhere at one single Internet exchange,” said AMS-IX CEO Job Witteman. “As such, it is the most logical place for NeuStar to roll out their SIP-IX service. It will give the ongoing discussion about VoIP peering a fantastic boost and all AMS-IX connected parties may benefit from this addition.”

“Our companies’ mutual core traits – reliability, security and vendor neutrality – make this partnership an excellent fit,” said Masahiro Furuya, President and CEO of TELEHOUSE America. “Additionally, the combination of NeuStar’s system and our peering fabric elevates our Internet Exchanges to a new exclusive level.”

NeuStar Chief Technology Officer Mark Foster said, “NeuStar has unmatched expertise in key technologies such as SIP and ENUM, essential to enabling SIP peering, which makes us a natural partner with the Internet Exchange Providers to provide a total solution to the market place. Our customers have asked us to build on what already works, and working together, we will deploy a key building block to enable the next phase of evolution in IP network services.”

SIP-IX will support the growth of revenue-generating services by connecting the “IP islands” of multiple network operators to support cross-network traffic, building a larger community of IP users – similar to how the U.S. text messaging market quickly grew over 30 times in size after intercarrier text messaging was instituted. This initiative is the first key step in enabling SIP peering among network operators. Initial SIP-IX components are currently in trials with leading network operators. NeuStar will engage in a significant number of trials in 2006 and expects to convert them to revenue-generating engagements in late 2006 as SIP-IX is contracted and adopted by network operators.

About NeuStar, Inc.
NeuStar (NYSE: NSR) is a provider of essential clearinghouse services to the global communications industry and Internet network operators around the world. Visit NeuStar online at www.NeuStar.biz.

About AMS-IX
AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) is a neutral and independent not-for-profit Internet exchange providing services since the early 1990's. The AMS-IX platform provides high quality, non-blocking professional peering services for all types of IP traffic whether data or VoIP. AMS-IX hosts the first mobile peering points worldwide, the Global GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) and the Mobile Data Exchange (MDX), as well as solutions for broadcasting traffic with the multicast peering service.

About Equinix
Equinix is the leading global provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services for enterprises, content companies, systems integrators and network services providers. Through the company's Internet Business Exchange™ (IBX®) centers in 11 markets in the U.S. and Asia, customers can directly interconnect with every major global network and ISP for their critical peering, transit and traffic exchange requirements.

About TELEHOUSE
TELEHOUSE is a stable and trusted pioneer of carrier-neutral collocation space and services. Since 1989, they have provided customers with secure, power-protected environments where they can house and operate their telecommunications and network resources. Companies from a wide range of industries have chosen to locate their mission critical equipment at one of TELEHOUSE’s collocation “meet-me-centers” in New York and California, to take advantage of potential business opportunities that exist from other TELEHOUSE customers. Please visit www.TELEHOUSE.com or contact us at sales @TELEHOUSE.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements about NeuStar, Inc.'s expectations, beliefs and business in the future. We cannot assure you that our expectations will be achieved or that any deviations will not be material.  Forward-looking statements are subject to many assumptions, risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated. These potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that SIP-IX is not adopted widely by potential customers, and our potential inability to reach acceptable contract terms with customers to provide this service.