Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks Enter Agreement to Help Service Providers Manage Their Complex Networks and Deliver New Services

NICE, FRANCE -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 21, 2007 -- TeleManagement World (Nice, France) -- Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Nokia Siemens Networks entered into an agreement to develop a standards-based telecommunications network management platform that will help service providers manage the increasing complexity of their networks and speed time to market of new services. With the increasing challenges associated with delivering converged services across multi-vendor networks and the high cost of custom integration, the jointly developed Operations Support Systems (OSS) platform will help the entire service provider community better align network capabilities and costs with business demands.

The two companies are committed to long-term cooperation, bringing together Cisco's strong Internet Protocol (IP) competence and Nokia Siemens Networks' solid end-to-end telecommunications capability, as well as extensive research and development (R&D) and economic resources from both companies.

"It is not often that we see such powerful innovation in an area so desperate for a new approach," said George Nazi, vice president of Global Engineering, BT. "While often downplayed, the OSS is the critical engine for our ability to support our network investment in meeting the demands of consumers and business for new services, new technologies and new ways of doing business. Providing a common view of the physical and virtual network across all technologies and building a foundation for other vendors will complement BT's software driven network strategy to deliver superior customer experiences."

As part of the agreement, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver a solution that will provide a common end-to-end network view of diverse network elements -- across IP and mobile technologies -- that are automatically discovered and represented as a virtual network model. Likewise, the solution will provide a complete view of network resources regardless of platforms, technologies or vendors. The platform will include basic fault, configuration, performance and security (FCAPS) management functionality as well as a variety of common functions, such as data acquisition and network element mediation, which will be utilized by higher-level OSS applications.

"We are happy to see the equipment suppliers taking a proactive approach to solving the integration challenges of converged networks," said Peter Mottishaw, Senior Analyst for OSS Observer. "This is an important announcement by Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks with the potential to significantly reduce OSS integration and maintenance costs for service providers. Together the two companies provide about a quarter of network and element management systems to service providers globally. A common, standards-based EMS platform that exposes the full capabilities of network elements from both companies will simplify application development, integration and maintenance for independent software vendors and systems integrators. This enables them to focus on the OSS application value."

Nokia Siemens Networks brings to the collaboration its proven end-to-end telecommunications capability and its out-of-the-box software product, Open EMS Suite by Nokia, which provides capabilities of an element management system (EMS) and can be used to build EMS for various kinds of networks including transport, mobile, and broadband.

"This collaboration will help our customers and the industry as a whole to overcome the challenge of how to manage a complex jungle of network components delivering both business and consumer services at the same time. There is pressure from both the technical and business perspective to create a more standardized and open architecture that will reduce the number of interfaces and the integration and customization efforts. That is what the joint OSS platform is all about," says Christian Fredrikson, Head of Operations and Business Software, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Along with its expertise in IP networking, Cisco also brings its Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) management solution to the collaboration. Cisco ANA is already the basis for managing complex multi-vendor networks as well as providing the base platform for new management solutions, such as the Cisco Managed Services Solution. Cisco ANA also provides management support for the Cisco CRS-1 routing platform.

"With the pressure on operators and service providers to reduce costs and deliver new, converged services more quickly across their multi-vendor and multi-technology networks, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks share a vision of helping these companies gain better control over their complex networks," said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president of the Network Management Technology Group Cisco. "Running a service provider network is a huge capital and operating expense. Our collaboration is focused directly at allowing operators and their suppliers to focus resources on areas of more differentiating value in their markets."

The broader intent of the collaboration is to provide a basis for helping OSS and other independent software vendors produce or extend their own applications more quickly. Companies such as Amdocs are demonstrating early support and will be leveraging the future technology from Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks to extend their own OSS solutions that assist with issues such as fault management, network provisioning and inventory control.

"Building linkages between Amdocs' industry-leading OSS applications and the core network and network devices has always been one of the most labour intensive parts of our many deployments," said Guy Dubois, President, Cramer, Amdocs OSS Division. "The collaboration between Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks promises to dramatically reduce the effort required and will free resources that can be better applied to deliver more value to our customers. This collaboration will allow service providers to deliver the highest quality services more quickly and at even lower cost."

Cisco and IBM already have a collaborative relationship in the OSS fault management and service assurance segment. This announcement extends that relationship to include interoperability with ANA.

"IBM is dedicated to helping service providers and network solution providers transform their ability to deliver next-generation services in a converging and highly competitive world," said Alan Ganek, CTO Tivoli Software and VP Autonomic Computing at IBM Corporation. "Today's announcement represents a highly differentiated new technology. IBM is focused on being interoperable with new technologies that promise to help more easily manage network assets, reduce complexity and add flexibility for users. IBM is committed to delivering carrier grade software solutions that meet today's needs and provide a safe migration path to new technologies like ANA."

Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks invite TeleManagement World attendees to visit their stands, located at booths #53 (Cisco) and #94 (Nokia Siemens Networks), to discuss involvement in the OSS collaboration, and find out about the Nokia NetAct network and service management system and Cisco ANA interoperability. The TeleManagement World exhibition takes place in Nice on May 22-24, 2007.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

About Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of communications services. The company provides a complete, well-balanced product portfolio of mobile and fixed network infrastructure solutions and addresses the growing demand for services with 20,000 service professionals worldwide. The combined pro-forma net sales of 17.1 billion Euro in fiscal year 2006 make Nokia Siemens Networks one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies. Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in some 150 countries and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It combines Nokia's Networks Business Group and the carrier related businesses of Siemens Communications. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Contact Information: Media Enquiries: Nokia Siemens Networks Operations and Business Software Communications Johanna Harjula Tel. +358 7180 31399 Email: johanna.harjula@nsn.com Nokia Siemens Networks Media Relations Tel. +358 7180 31451 Cisco (Europe) Lisa Brooke Tel. +44 20 8824 0333 Email: lbrooke@cisco.com Cisco (US) Linda Horiuchi Tel. +1 408-853-5464 Email: lhoriuch@cisco.com