Vertical Xcelerator IP™ Receives 2008 VON Magazine Innovator Award

Next generation multi-service gateway honored for its ‘all-in-one’ SMB telephony solution with
economical wired and wireless SIP VoIP connectivity.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 1, 2008 – Vertical Communications, (VRCC.OB)(“Vertical”), a leading provider of next-generation, IP-based phone systems and voice applications that help businesses better serve their customers, announced today the Vertical Xcelerator IP™ is a recipient of the 2008 VON Magazine Innovator Award which honors innovative companies that represent the future of the Internet Communications Industry. A next generation, multi-service gateway, Xcelerator IP is attractive to small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) because it delivers significant and immediate cost savings by eliminating the need to purchase, integrate and manage multiple voice and data components.

“For cost conscious small businesses and SOHO users, the performance, simplicity and cost-reducing capabilities of Xcelerator IP deliver a compelling return on investment (“ROI”) and finally make it easy to realize the promise of VoIP,” said Peter Bailey, senior vice president product management and business development for Vertical Communications. “We are honored that VON Magazine has recognized the Xcelerator IP’s merit in the SMB marketplace.”

For smaller enterprise customers looking for an ‘all-in-one’ solution with economical wired and wireless SIP VoIP connectivity, Xcelerator IP offers a lower cost of ownership by integrating functionality that previously had to be purchased as separate systems, and reduces ongoing monthly communications costs by allowing for more efficient voice, data and WiFi services delivery to small businesses. Xcelerator IP supports up to 24 employees and integrates an advanced SIP Gateway/IP phone system, data router/firewall, integrated voicemail/auto attendant, 911 support, multi-site networking, WAN routing and wireless access point (WAP) in a single solution.

“The VON Magazine Innovator Awards recognize the Internet Communications industry’s best and brightest companies, and we’re pleased to include Vertical Communications as an inaugural award winner,” said Bill Sell, Publisher, VON Media Group. “We congratulate Vertical on this accomplishment as the selection committee unanimously felt that Vertical and the Xcelerator IP stood out among the large field of companies that participated in the nomination process.”  

About Vertical Communications
Vertical Communications is one of the largest telephony vendors in North America and a global leader in next-generation IP-based voice and data and digital communications systems for business, with a current installed base of over 200,000 customers. Vertical combines voice and data technologies with business process understanding to deliver integrated IP-PBX and application solutions that enhance customer service and business productivity. Vertical’s customers are leading companies of all sizes, from small to large and distributed, and include CVS/pharmacy, Staples and Apria Healthcare. Vertical delivers its solutions through a worldwide network of over 1800 business partners. With headquarters in Cambridge MA, Vertical has sales, engineering and operations facilities in Charlottesville VA, Phoenix AZ, Santa Clara CA, Sarasota FL, Munich Germany and Hyderabad India. For more information about Vertical, please call 877-VERTICAL or visit our Website at www.vertical.com.

About VON Magazine Innovator Awards
Building on the legacy of the Pulver 100, the VON Innovator Awards have evolved to recognize all companies – start-ups to publicly-traded companies - which represent the future of Internet Communications.  Each participating company completed a lengthy and comprehensive nomination process, and the recipients have been selected from a committee made up of VON Magazine editors, columnists, and contributors, as well as the leading content producer for the VON.x conferences.  The Inaugural VON Magazine Innovator Award winners will be honored at Spring VON.x at 6:00 PM Pacific time on March 18th in the VON Theatre in San Jose.  For additional information, please visit http://vonmag.com/innovators.

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Press Contacts:
Ruth Seigel
Vertical Communications, Inc.
rseigel@vertical.com
480-443-6313

Todd Keefe
Pulvermedia/VON Magazine
todd@pulvermedia.com
617-262-1968 x 100

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, and these statements are subject to important facts and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.  The forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of subjects, including, without limitation, the value that may or may not be placed upon our products as a result of our partner relationships, the ability of our products to improve the financial results of our customers, the perceived value our products have for our customers.  The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: the risk that the use of our products may fail to improve the financial performance of our customers, and the risk that our current and potential customers may fail to perceive the value that we ascribe to our product offerings, or difficulties and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its most recent filings on Form 10-K.

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