The "roller coaster" metaphor may never be more apt than it is for describing the global technology industry in 2010. As for GENBAND, 2010 was arguably the most momentous year in the company’s history, successfully acquiring and integrating Nortel's IP switching division while delivering record bookings, revenue and earnings.

Last year we created a completely new corporate structure, integrated 2,000 new employees, rationalized dozens of product solutions, migrated hundreds of legacy IT systems, established legal entities in over 50 new countries and booked nearly $800 million in new business.

I am pleased to report that we grew our global IP switching market-share despite a challenging economic climate. According to Infonetics, GENBAND grew market share in the addressable global IP infrastructure segment from 20.6% in 2009 to 21.2% in 2010.

In January, we went live with Oracle R12, completing the vast majority of our integration of Nortel CVAS in less than eight months – an accomplishment that exceeded even the most ambitious estimations.

In addition to securing 35 new customers and 30 new reseller partners last year, GENBAND introduced its most strategic array of products, including GENBAND GENiUS™, the industry’s only universal IP switching and networking platform supporting multi-purpose IP solutions. The company also released the GENBAND P-Series product line, utilizing the industry’s most advanced Traffic & Policy technologies to help operators decrease network congestion. With 24 news patents awarded last year and 15 new patents filed, GENBAND’s product development and R&D roadmap is robust.

GENBAND significantly strengthened its number 1 position in the cable VoIP market with the acquisition of Cedar Point Communications in January, which added Cedar Point’s IP switching solutions and several marquee cable operators to the portfolio.

Given the uncertain state of the macro economy, the big-picture outlook for 2011 can only be described as "cautious optimism".   Technology will continue to be the catalyst for continuous innovation and provide growth for the global economy. Looking beyond the macroeconomic uncertainty and the technology megatrends, there are many related trends to watch for that are shaping or reshaping different aspects of the global technology industry. For example, the recession has been credited with accelerating the initial corporate adoption of cloud-based services, a growth market we uniquely address with GENBAND GENiUS and the A2 applications platform.

In an industry as multifaceted, economically influential and extraordinarily fluid as the global technology industry, staying on top as a market-share leader has become more challenging than ever. But with a value proposition built on one of the most fundamental shifts in communications infrastructure history, today’s unparalleled transition from TDM to IP creates enormous opportunity for GENBAND innovation.

Whether bridging these two worlds through market leading gateways and softswitch technology; empowering operators through advanced IP business enterprise and residential communications applications; connecting and securing newly-minted IP networks through advanced session border control (SBC) solutions; or enhancing business intelligence, through traffic management and security technologies, GENBAND is leading this industry transformation.

As always, thank you for your business and continued partnership.

Charlie

With our recent acquisition of Cedar Point, GENBAND has improved its position in the VoIP market and solidified it as the number one vendor in the Cable Market. So how was this accomplished? By bringing a “who's who” of world class cable operators to the table for one reason. Customers such as Comcast Corporation, Cablemas, Telmex International (Colombia & Chile), Telecentro, Kabel Deutschland, Multimedia Polska and Netcologne, to name a few, are now customers of GENBAND. In fact Cedar Point has 48 customers spread across 23 countries in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. 187 switches and 8.2M lines have shipped, and this has helped to boost GENBAND to a 40%+ worldwide market share in the cable VoIP market with virtually no overlap in the customer base.

In the SAFARI C³, GENBAND has acquired an integrated switching platform that enables the scalable, simplified and cost-effective delivery of VoIP and multimedia communications services. SAFARI C³ supports up to 250,000 lines of capacity in less than a cubic meter of space and provides all of the components that comprise a voice-switching infrastructure. This integration allows the SAFARI C³ to deliver one of the lowest total cost of ownerships available.

The SafariFusion™ Visual Communications Suite (VCS) announced in June 2010, represents a holistic approach to communications management and was designed to provide subscribers with significantly increased visibility and control of inbound and outbound communication. VCS delivers features such as Visual Voicemail, speech to text, Caller ID, Message Waiting Indicator, call log with call disposition, click to call, and user-definable configuration of communications features through the Communication Control Center.

Using SafariFusion VCS, operators can offer new, highly-differentiated services that allow subscribers to balance privacy, accessibility and the ability to retrieve messages and respond to callers at the subscriber's own convenience during television viewing, Web browsing and other activities.

VCS is compatible with EBIF, tru2way, IPTV and other standards, and can be delivered to any device, including STBs, connected TVs, PCs, iPads, tablets and mobile devices.

Plans for defining future product roadmaps and integration strategies are being developed and you will hear more in the coming months. The good news for existing Cedar Point customers....it will be business as usual.

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are facing the daunting challenge of maintaining legacy networks that support TDM technology while at the same time evolving their high growth mobile and IP network requirements. The current strategy of many CSPs is to cap their legacy TDM networks while deploying overlay networks for IP. This has created operational hurdles for these operators in terms of speed to market for IP-based services and applications while at the same time adversely impacting their Opex. CSPs are now realizing that a “cap and maintain” strategy needs a careful revaluation.

GENBAND provides an end-to-end VoIP portfolio and is committed to "network transformation" – a strategy that helps operators to transform their existing networks to IP while maintain legacy services and deploy advanced IP-based services. An additional impetus for network transformation is that many of the technologies that are used in the legacy TDM networks are more than 25 years old and are fast approaching their end of life. Network transformation can take several years to complete in large networks, so the time to begin network transformation is today.

We are committed to our customers' success and our services help customers move from one technology to another. The GENBAND strategy is one of network evolution, not revolution. Effective transformation requires the real-world experience of today's communications infrastructures, as well as the skill set, the tools and the capability to define and deploy the next generation solutions and, importantly, the wherewithal to ensure quality and profitability in network co-existence along the way. We have the people, skills, processes and tools to help our customers perform the transformation and provide solution support before, during and after the transformation, while taking accountability for the outcome. Our services come with high quality and zero interruptions. We preserve revenue generating capabilities for our customers and take accountability for the outcome. These turn-key differentiators are hard to find in the industry.

With 40 million lines transformed across 14 vendor switch types, GENBAND has world class network transformation resources, tools and practices. Legacy technology transformation is critical and challenging for customers and GENBAND is simplifying and accelerating this transformation, whether it be it to Next Generation IP, Mobile Broadband, or IMS.

GENBAND Mobile Office, powered by the A2 Converged Application Server is an all-mobile corporate phone system designed for the small to medium business market (view demo).

GENBAND's Mobile Office is uniquely positioned with a complete unified communications solution for the purely mobile small business that includes both access connectivity and enterprise-grade office telephony applications. This solution opens new revenue generating opportunities for mobile operators as they more comprehensively serve business customers.

According to the US Census Bureau, small businesses make up over 99% of all employer firms with 50% of these firms being home-based. Likewise, the UK Census noted that 97% of small business firms have less than 5 employees. Small businesses have traditionally been underserved when it comes to business-class communications, many of which have no means to support an on-premise phone system. More and more of these businesses are using mobile phones as their primary business line, but lack the ability to interact with the rest of their business peers and employees. These small businesses need the same unified communications and productivity tools that larger enterprises have, but need it to be simple to manage and cost effective.

With GENBAND's Mobile Office, mobile operators no longer need to lease PRI lines to serve business customers that restrict service coverage and increase costs making it hard to stay competitive. By offering Mobile Office to small business customers, operators can provide a valuable unified communications service that up until now has not been possible. Mobile operators can offer a purely mobile solution that drives voice, data and SMS traffic thereby increasing mobile ARPU, reducing subscriber churn and allow them to compete with over the top players.

Services available via A2 Mobile Office:

• Support via 2G/3G/4G/WiFi Mobile Phone or Tablet
• Automated Attendant
• Extension Dialing Between Employees
• Converged Messaging
• Unified Communications Smartphone Client: Instant Messaging / SMS Messaging, Call Logs, Presence, Click to Call / Click to Email, Voicemail & Conferencing
• Web-based Self Administration
• Optional Desktop Attendant Console
• Optional Fixed Line / Converged Desktop With Mobile Phone

For technical support inquires, call 866-GENBAND to reach the applicable customer support center. For all GENBAND products, you can reach technical support online.

While 2010 was the most transformative year in our company's history with the acquisition of Nortel CVAS, we have had an eventful 2011 that is on pace to rival last year. We came out strong on Jan. 4th, 2011, announcing the acquisition of Cedar Point Communications to further enhance our leadership position in the high-growth cable market. At this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), we announced several major mobile initiatives well timed to improve network congestion and signaling overloads resulting from the explosion in smart phone and tablet usage.

Additionally, GENBAND CEO Charlie Vogt and top senior executives met with many of our customers as well as analysts and media while at MWC. We also unveiled GENBAND Mobile Office, an all-mobile corporate phone system designed for the small business market, along with GENBAND Mobile Voice VPN, a SIP business trunking solution that connects enterprise customers directly into the mobile service provider's network core. Our mobile office and VPN solutions tap a range of cost-effective mobility solutions that improve productivity.

The year is only going to get better and we look forward to seeing you at a number of upcoming events.

Last month, GENBAND was at the Cablelabs Winter Conference - a particularly strategic event for GENBAND in light of the Cedar Point acquisition, which allowed us to showcase a suite of products, services and solutions that operators can offer their cable customers.

This month, we are attending Comptel Spring and the Channel Partners Conference and Expo, both in Las Vegas. We are also at Broadband World Forum in Dubai and at CTIA Wireless 2011 in the U.S., where we unveiling an entirely new trade show multi-tiered booth property. GENBAND is highlighting exciting, cutting-edge demos of applications that include GENBAND Mobile Office and Mobile Voice VPN. At CTIA, we are also showcasing Traffic and Policy Management (TPM) advances that help operators address significant industry issues from backhaul congestion and over-the-top usage habits, to more complex traffic and routing cost pressures, and the need to create new revenue-generating service offerings.

We are demonstrating our state-of-the art, carrier grade Session Border Control platform (SBC) that enables the secure interworking of voice and multimedia sessions between diverse IP networks in a variety of applications. Our GenView Real-time Session Manager (RSM) tool that manages GENBAND's SBC portfolio will also be on display along with GENBAND's Professional Services network transformation experts. The GENBAND team will be on hand to discuss the latest tools and best practices required to transform legacy technology to IP and mobility. At every event of the year, GENBAND will be showcasing its comprehensive network transformation suite of solutions and services that enable service providers to transition legacy networks to VoIP, integrate IP-to-IP networks and migrate from stand-alone to in-service Geo networks.

If you would like to meet with any GENBAND executives at these or any other upcoming events, please email us and we'll make the arrangements.

On May 17, we will be meeting customers in concert with TIA's “Inside the Network” event being held in Grapevine, Texas. Similar to our Perspective 2010 event held last year, where we hosted media primes and industry/financial analysts, our action-packed customer-focused meetings during the TIA event will bring together top executives from our key accounts and be hosted by GENBAND senior management who will provide an overview of GENBAND's company vision, strategy and products.

In other news, our GENiUS platform made headlines again in February with its recent award as a 2010 Product of the Year from INTERNET TELEPHONY. The editors of INTERNET TELEPHONY select companies that have demonstrated the vision, leadership and thoroughness associated with the Product of the Year Award and we are proud to be a winner of this esteemed recognition.

Lastly, GENBAND was recently name the Carrier VoIP Vendor of the Year in Telecomasia's Reader's Choice Awards.

Over the past year we saw explosive growth of Broadband Traffic, Connected Tablets and Smart Phones, Social Networking, and Over The Top (OTT) Video. In 2011, these trends will continue to accelerate. Some carriers are beginning to see OTT Services and the large associated end-user communities as an opportunity for subscriber and revenue growth. Key trends to watch this year include:

OTT Video will dominate Internet traffic
By 2015, two-thirds of all mobile data will be video. Video already accounts for half of U.S. internet traffic, and by 2015 over 90% of Broadband data will be video. Video cord cutting is still limited, but this will change as content expands and end-user access via newer consumer devices such as internet-enabled TVs, DVD players and gaming systems increases. A recent Informa study found that video cord cutting was already a quantifiable trend in China. Expect video cord cutting to expand to other regions of the world as end-users increasingly see OTT video as a viable alternative to pay TV subscriptions. GENBAND Traffic and Policy Management (TPM) solutions will allow carriers to effectively manage traffic growth driven by OTT video and to optimize the delivery of video and other multimedia content to provide a premium end-user experience.

Carriers are beginning to recognize that OTT services do not have to be competitors.
It is possible to cooperate with OTT providers for mutual benefit. We've already started to see this in the mobile domain, with three providers in the United Kingdom offering free Skype-to-Skype calls, and Verizon Wireless offering international calls on Skype. Social Networking via mobile devices is also an important and fast growing trend. The ability to create and share multimedia content wherever you are, significantly enhances the social networking experience for many end users. As carriers embrace the large and rapidly expanding user communities that use these OTT services, and provide communications services that enhance the OTT experience, they are experiencing significant subscriber and traffic growth. Perhaps the best example of this is the tremendous subscriber growth that AT&T experienced since the introduction of the iPhone and iPad approximately three years ago. The iPhone/iPad brought a major improvement in a mobile user's ability to consume content, social networking and other OTT service, as a result, AT&T enjoyed a major increase in their subscriber base. We are working on integrating our applications platform with OTT services to blend Social Networking and New Age Communications services with carrier services provided via LTE and IMS. This will, in turn, serve to differentiate all of our VoIP solutions.

Mobile advertising will expand dramatically in 2011, passing the billion-dollar mark in the U.S., and within a few years, matching the advertising spend on today's web.
Location and presence enhancements to existing internet advertising models will be provided by mobile platforms to further improve the ability to deliver targeted advertising to end-users. It will be important to provide Mobile Advertising Solutions which properly protect end-user privacy and which provide incentives for end-users to “opt in” to mobile advertising services. We are working on a mobile advertising extension to our Applications and our Traffic and Policy Management (TPM) solutions that will allow our customers to take advantage of this important trend.

Continued growth of mobile broadband traffic, driven largely by video, will trigger wide scale deployment of TPM solutions in mobile networks.
These products will be used to manage the capped bandwidth plans that are becoming the norm for mobile operators. TPM will also be used for congestion management and to optimize video and other multimedia content delivery. TPM will also allow delay sensitive services like gaming and VoIP to coexist with bandwidth intensive streaming video. GENBAND is well positioned to capitalize on the emergence of this market with our TPM solution.

The way in which end-users consume communications, entertainment and information services is changing rapidly. Traditional revenue streams - voice, SMS, etc. - are being displaced by video, social networking, advertising, and new age communications services. Unrestrained traffic growth and changing business models are creating challenges and opportunities for carriers that provide broadband access and other services. GENBAND is well positioned to exploit these opportunities. Hold on tight, it's going to be a very interesting year.

Knowledge Services (KS) now has two new training courses available in support of the C20 Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (aTCA) and Traffic Policy Management (TPM) products. Both the aTCA15 and TPM15 are Leader-led Operations and Maintenance courses that can be delivered via eLearning, at the Customer location (Onsite), or at a GENBAND training location. The aTCA15 is 4 days and the TPM15 is 3 days in length.

Please click on the KS regional training contact link to identify your KS training contact to get answers to all your training questions.

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