Critical Links’ edgeBox™ is now certified as a Polycom® approved call-control platform

FAIRFIELD, NJ, August 18, 2008 – Critical Links, a global provider of unified voice, data and IT solutions for small and medium business (SMBs), today announced that it has achieved partner status in the Polycom VoIP Interoperability Partner (VIP) Program. Customers are now assured of seamless integration of Critical Links’ edgeBOX multi-service business gateway (MSBG) with Polycom IP phones and end points for greatly simplified VoIP deployment.

Through this partnership with Polycom, Critical Links and its channel partners can now offer customers the award winning edgeBOX bundled with preconfigured Polycom phones. This enables plug-and-play provisioning and set-up, as well as a single point of contact for support of their VoIP/IP-PBX infrastructure.

“VoIP is rapidly gaining traction among SMB customers, and through our certification with Polycom, Critical Links is able to provide this growing customer segment with a best-of-breed VoIP and IP-PBX solution,” said Abdul Kasim, vice president of global marketing and business development, Critical Links. “Polycom is one the world’s top manufacturers of IP phones and end points, and their certification is further validation of edgeBOX as an industry-leading call control platform.”

To achieve partner status, the edgeBOX was successfully tested against a defined feature set with Polycom SoundPoint IP® desktop and SoundStation® IP conference phones and SIP software. As a member of the VIP Program, Critical Links and its partners can take advantage of Polycom’s technical support resources.

“We are pleased to welcome Critical Links as a VIP partner,” said Chalan Aras, vice president of marketing for Polycom’s voice communications solutions division. “Through our VIP program, Polycom works to ensure that customers can easily integrate our phones with the VoIP equipment of their choice. As multi-service business gateways gain momentum as VoIP/IP-PBX platforms in the SMB market, the edgeBOX and our IP phones together enable a complete solution to serve the needs of SMB customers.”

The edgeBOX provides a full-fledged IP telephony system, smoothly integrated with email, contact database, calendars, security, VPN, file sharing, and more. The voice and data services integration improves employee productivity, simplifies installation, maintenance and upgrades, and dramatically reduces equipment, communications, and maintenance costs for SMBs. It is available on a range of scalable platforms for companies from 10 to 300 users. edgeBOX can be fully managed remotely through a simple browser, which makes it specially suited for system integrators that want to get into the business of providing managed services to SMB customers.

About Critical Links
Critical Links is a global provider of converged voice, data and IT solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs) that dramatically simplify and cost-reduce by consolidating over a single scalable and fault-tolerant platform.

Critical Links’ flagship product, the edgeBOX™, is an award-winning multi-function gateway appliance that includes VoIP/IP-PBX, VPNs, security, NAC, QoS and a WiFi access point as well as a fax server, web server, e-mail server, print server and data storage. It is available on a range of hardware platforms that support up to 300 users, with different form factors and a host of broadband interfaces such as BRI/PRI(T1/E1), FX0/FXS, Ethernet, etc. Critical Links typically serves SMBs through a global network of VARs, System Integrators, OEMs and Service Providers. For more information: www.critical-links.com/Polycom or info@critical-links.com.

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