<font size=-1>HP AND NEC FURTHER ALLIANCE TO INCLUDE IP-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE</font>

The Alliance To Provide Carrier-grade Control Of IP-based Traffic

Hoping to capitalize on what they expect to become a global IP-based communications infrastructure, HP and NEC Corporation have announced an extension of their long-standing strategic alliance into the fast-growing Internet Protocol (IP) backbone network market, to include collaboration in the area of IP Infrastructure Server technology. NEC will now deliver carrier-grade IP servers based on HP OpenCall, a standard for computer-based intelligent voice services over SS7 and IP networks.

HP and NEC expect an IP-based communications infrastructure, comprising a tight integration of advanced switching and open server technologies, will be at the core of next-generation communications networks. The IP Infrastructure Servers will provide carrier-grade control of IP-based communications traffic for applications such as end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS), Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Voice over IP (VoIP).

HP and NEC already have a long-standing relationship to advance HP-UX mission-critical computing for IP services. In addition, in the past year NEC has developed applications for Intelligent Network services using HP OpenCall SS7 and deployed them to the new common carriers in Japan.

As part of the collaboration: NEC will deliver IP Infrastructure Servers based on HP-UX Internet servers and a variety of applications using HP software products, such as HP OpenCall; HP and NEC will combine to support the high-availability and real-time performance required by telecom-carrier applications; and HP OpenCall platforms will incorporate NEC's IP Infrastructure technology.

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