(1) Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the registration fee required by Section 6(b) of the Securities Act and computed pursuant to Rule 457(c) under the Securities Act based upon the average of the high and low prices of the Common Stock on August 25, 2003, as reported on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PROSPECTUS IS NOT COMPLETE AND MAY BE AMENDED OR CHANGED. THE SELLING STOCKHOLDERS MAY NOT SELL THESE SECURITIES PURSUANT TO THIS PROSPECTUS UNTIL THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT FILED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION IS EFFECTIVE. THIS PROSPECTUS IS NOT AN OFFER TO SELL THESE SECURITIES AND IT IS NOT SOLICITING AN OFFER TO BUY THESE SECURITIES IN ANY STATE WHERE THE OFFER OR SALE IS NOT PERMITTED.

This prospectus relates to the resale of up to 5,650,000 shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders listed in this Prospectus under the section "Selling Stockholders." These shares include: (i) an aggregate of 2,260,000 shares which were sold by us at the price of $0.434 per share in a private purchase transaction which closed on July 29, 2003, (ii) 2,260,000 shares which are issuable upon exercise of warrants at an exercise price of $0.60 per share, (iii) 565,000 shares which are issuable upon exercise of warrants at an exercise price of $0.75 per share, and (iv) 565,000 shares which are issuable upon exercise of warrants at an exercise price of $1.00 per share, which were issued by us in the same private purchase transaction.

The prices at which the selling stockholders may sell the shares will be determined by the prevailing market price for the shares or in negotiated transactions. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling stockholders.

Our common stock is quoted on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market under the symbol "EGHT." On August , 2003, the last sale price of our common stock was $ per share.

The terms "Company," "8x8," "Registrant," "we," "us," and "our" in this prospectus refer to 8x8, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

THE SHARES OFFERED IN THIS PROSPECTUS INVOLVE A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK. YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE RISK FACTORS COMMENCING ON PAGE 3 IN DETERMINING WHETHER TO PURCHASE THE COMMON STOCK.

NEITHER THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOR ANY STATE SECURITIES COMMISSION HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THESE SECURITIES OR PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS PROSPECTUS. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.

We have not authorized any person to make a statement that differs from what is in this prospectus. If any person does make a statement that differs from what is in this prospectus, you should not rely on it. This prospectus is not an offer to sell, nor is it seeking an offer to buy, these securities in any state in which the offer or sale is not permitted. The information in this prospectus is complete and accurate as of its date, but the information may change after that date.

No dealer, salesperson or other person has been authorized to give any information or to make any representations other than those contained in or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. If given or made, such information or representations must not be relied upon as having been authorized by us or the selling stockholders. This prospectus does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, such securities by anyone in any jurisdiction where, or to any person to whom, it is unlawful to make such offer or solicitation. Neither the delivery of this prospectus nor any sale made hereunder shall, under any circumstances, create any implication that there has been no change in the affairs of 8x8, Inc. since the date as of which information is given in this prospectus.

Because we are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act, we file reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You may read and copy these reports, proxy statements and other information at the public reference facilities maintained by the SEC at Room 1024, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549. You may also obtain copies of those materials at prescribed rates from the public reference section of the SEC at 450 Fifth Street, Washington, D.C. 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the public reference room by calling the SEC at (800) SEC-0330. In addition, we are required to file electronic versions of those materials with the SEC through the SEC's EDGAR system. The SEC maintains a web site at http://www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding registrants that file electronically with the SEC. We have filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-3 under the Securities Act with respect to the securities offered with this prospectus. This prospectus does not contain all of the information in the registration statement, parts of which we have omitted, as allowed under the rules and regulations of the SEC. You should refer to the registration statement for further information with respect to us and our securities. Statements contained in this prospectus as to the contents of any contract or other document are not necessarily complete and, in each instance, we refer you to the copy of each contract or document filed as an exhibit to the registration statement. Copies of the registration statement, including exhibits, may be inspected without charge at the SEC's principal office in Washington, D.C., and you may obtain copies from this office upon payment of the fees prescribed by the SEC. We will furnish without charge to each person to whom a copy of this prospectus is delivered, upon written or oral request, a copy of the information that has been incorporated by reference into this prospectus (except exhibits, unless they are specifically incorporated by reference into this prospectus). You should direct any requests for copies to: 8x8, Inc., 2445 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, California 95054, Attention: Chief Financial Officer, Telephone: (408) 727-1885.

The SEC allows us to incorporate by reference certain of our publicly-filed documents into this prospectus, which means that information included in these documents is considered part of this prospectus. We incorporate by reference in this prospectus the information contained in the following documents:

• our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2003, filed with the SEC on May 29, 2003;
• our Proxy Statement dated June 23, 2003, filed with the SEC on June 19, 2003 in connection with our 2003 Annual Meeting of Stockholders;
• our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2003, filed with the SEC on July 25, 2003;
• our Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on July 31, 2003;
• the description of our common stock in our registration statement on Form 8-A filed with the SEC on November 21, 1996, including any amendments or reports filed for the purpose of updating such description; and
• all documents that we file with the SEC under Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15 of the Exchange Act until all of the securities that we may offer with this prospectus are sold.

We will furnish without charge to you, on written or oral request, a copy of any or all of the documents incorporated by reference, other than the exhibits to those documents. You may obtain copies of those documents from us, free of cost, by contacting us at the address or telephone number provided in "Where You Can Find More Information" immediately above.

Information that we file later with the SEC and that is incorporated by reference in this prospectus will automatically update information contained in this prospectus or that was previously incorporated by reference into this prospectus. You will be deemed to have notice of all information incorporated by reference in this prospectus as if that information was included in this prospectus.

Our principal offices are located at 2445 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, California 95054 and our telephone number is (408) 727-1885. Our web site is www.8x8.com.

Before you invest in our common stock, you should become aware of various risks, including those described below. You should carefully consider these risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this prospectus, including the documents incorporated in this prospectus by reference, before you decide whether to purchase shares of our common stock. The risks set out below may not be exhaustive.

As of June 30, 2003, we had approximately $2.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments. The possibility that we will not be able to meet our obligations as and when they become due over the next twelve months raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Accordingly, we have been pursuing, and will continue to pursue, the implementation of certain cost reduction strategies. Additionally, we are seeking additional financing and evaluating financing alternatives in order to meet our cash requirements for fiscal 2004. We may not be able to obtain additional financing as needed on acceptable terms, or at all, which may require us to further reduce our operating costs and other expenditures, including additional reductions of personnel and capital expenditures. Alternatively, or in addition to such potential measures, we may elect to implement other cost reduction actions as we may determine are necessary and in our best interests, including the possible sale or cessation of certain of our business segments. Any such actions undertaken might limit our opportunities to realize plans for revenue growth and we might not be able to reduce our costs in amounts sufficient to achieve break-even or profitable operations. If we issue additional equity or convertible debt securities to raise funds, the ownership percentage of our existing stockholders would be reduced and they may experience significant dilution. New investors may demand rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of existing holders of our common stock. If we are not successful in these actions, we may be forced to cease operations.

We recorded an operating loss of approximately $1.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2003 and we ended the period with an accumulated deficit of $150 million. In addition, we recorded operating losses of $12 million, $10 million and $74.5 million for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001, respectively. We expect that we will continue to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future, and such losses may be substantial. We will need to generate significant revenue growth to achieve an operating profit. Given our history of fluctuating revenues and operating losses, we cannot be certain that we will be able to achieve profitability on either a quarterly or annual basis in the future.

In April 2002, we were notified by the Nasdaq staff that the bid price for our common stock must close at $1.00 per share or more for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days during the ninety calendar day period ending July 9, 2002 or we might be delisted. As we were not in compliance under the Nasdaq National Market minimum bid price listing standard by July 9, 2002, we transferred to and began trading on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market on July 26, 2002. As a result of our transfer to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market, our delisting determination was extended an additional ninety days until October 7, 2002. Although our common stock did not achieve a closing bid price of $1.00 for at least ten consecutive trading days before October 7, 2002, we met the initial listing criteria for the Nasdaq SmallCap Market as of October 7, 2002. As a result, we remained eligible to be quoted on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market for an additional 180-calendar day grace period, which expired on April 7, 2003, subject to our compliance with the continued listing requirements during the extended grace period. On April 8, 2003, the Nasdaq staff notified us that we had been granted an additional ninety days, or until July 7, 2003 to regain compliance with the minimum bid price listing standard. On July 11, 2003, the Nasdaq staff notified us that we had not, by July 7, 2003, regained compliance with the minimum $1.00 closing bid price per share requirement, as set forth in Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(4), and that, accordingly, our securities would be subject to delisting from The Nasdaq SmallCap Market at the opening of business on July 22, 2003. Furthermore, we have been notified by the Nasdaq Staff that we are not in compliance with Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(2)(B), which requires that we have a minimum of $2,500,000 in stockholders' equity or $35,000,000 market value of listed securities or $500,000 of net income from continuing operations for the most recently completed fiscal year (or two of the three most recently completed fiscal years). As we are entitled pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4800 Series, on July 18, 2003 we filed an appeal of the Nasdaq Staff's determination to a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. Our hearing before the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel was held on August 20, 2003. We expect to receive notification of the Panel's determination within 30 days from the hearing date. There can be no assurance that our appeal will be successful and that we will be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.

Delisting could reduce the ability of our shareholders to purchase or sell shares as quickly and as inexpensively as they have done historically. For instance, failure to obtain listing on another market or exchange may make it more difficult for traders to sell our securities. Broker-dealers may be less willing or able to sell or make a market in our common stock. Not maintaining a listing on a major stock market may:

• result in a decrease in the trading price of our common stock;
• lessen interest by institutions and individuals in investing in our common stock;
• make it more difficult to obtain analyst coverage; and
• make it more difficult for us to raise capital in the future.

The market price of the shares of our common stock has been and is likely to be highly volatile. It may be significantly affected by factors such as:

• actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;
• announcements of technical innovations;
• loss of key personnel;
• new products or new contracts by us, our competitors or their customers;
• developments with respect to patents or proprietary rights, general market conditions, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts, and other factors which could be unrelated to, or outside our control; and
• the potential delisting of our common stock.

The stock market has from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have particularly affected the market prices for the common stocks of technology companies and that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company's securities, securities class action litigation has often been initiated against the issuing company. If our stock price is volatile, we may also be subject to such litigation. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management's attention and resources, which would disrupt business and could cause a decline in our operating results. Any settlement or adverse determination in such litigation would also subject us to significant liability.

Under the terms of a registration rights agreement we entered into in connection with the redemption of our outstanding convertible debt, we agreed to register the 1,000,000 shares of our common stock issued to the former note holders for resale. If we fail to maintain the effectiveness of the registration statement through December 2003, we may be required to pay cash penalties and may be required to redeem all or a portion of the shares of common stock held by the former note holders. Under the agreement, the redemption price would be the higher of $0.898 or the market price of our common stock at the time of the redemption. If we are required to pay a cash penalty or to redeem any of the shares, this will deplete our cash reserves, which may cause significant harm to our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We believe that our business and future profitability will be largely dependent on widespread market acceptance of our IP telephony technology and products. Our videoconferencing semiconductor business has not provided sufficient revenues to profitably operate our business, and we have announced the end of life of these products and have substantially completed end of life shipments. To date, we have not generated significant revenue from the sale of our IP telephony products and services. If we are not able to generate significant revenues selling into the IP telephony market, our business and operating results would be seriously harmed.

Success of our IP telephony strategy assumes that there will be future demand for IP telephony systems and services. In order for the IP telephony market to continue to grow, several things need to occur. Telephone service providers must continue to invest in the deployment of high speed broadband networks to residential and commercial customers. IP networks must improve quality of service for real-time communications, managing effects such as packet jitter, packet loss, and unreliable bandwidth, so that toll-quality service can be provided. IP telephony equipment must achieve the 99.999% reliability that users of the public switched telephone network have come to expect from their telephone service. IP telephony service providers must offer cost and feature benefits to their customers that are sufficient to cause the customers to switch away from traditional telephony service providers. If any or all of these factors fail to occur, our business may not grow.

Through the end of 2000, the telecommunications market was experiencing rapid growth spurred by a number of factors including deregulation in the industry, entry of a large number of new emerging service providers, growth in data traffic and the availability of significant capital from the financial markets. In 2001, the telecommunications industry began a reversal of some of these trends, marked by a dramatic reduction in current and projected future capital expenditures by service providers, financial difficulties and, in some cases, bankruptcies experienced by emerging service providers, as well as a sharp contraction in the availability of capital. These conditions caused a substantial reduction in demand for telecommunications equipment and related software, which has had a resulting impact on demand for Netergy's IP telephony semiconductor and software products and for Centile's hosted iPBX solution. If our current or potential customers are forced to defer or further curtail their capital spending programs, sales of our hosted iPBX product and Packet8 IP telephone service to telecommunication service providers and sales of our IP telephony semiconductors to manufacturers of telecommunication equipment may continue to be adversely affected, which would negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, many of the industries in which telecommunication service providers operate have experienced consolidation. The loss of one or more of our current or potential telecommunication service provider or telecommunication equipment OEM customers, through industry consolidation or otherwise, could reduce or eliminate our sales to such a customer and consequently harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We expect the developments described above to continue to affect our business for at least the next several quarters in the following manner:

• our ability to accurately forecast revenue will be diminished;
• our revenues could be reduced; and
• our losses may increase because operating expenses are largely based on anticipated revenue trends and a high percentage of our expenses are and will continue to be fixed in the short-term.

Our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely impacted by any one or a combination of the above.

Our historical operating results have fluctuated significantly and will likely continue to fluctuate in the future, and a decline in our operating results could cause our stock price to fall. On an annual and a quarterly basis, there are a number of factors that may affect our operating results, many of which are outside our control. These include, but are not limited to:

• changes in market demand;
• the timing of customer orders;
• competitive market conditions;
• lengthy sales cycles and/or regulatory approval cycles;
• new product introductions by us or our competitors;
• market acceptance of new or existing products;
• the cost and availability of components;
• the mix of our customer base and sales channels;
• the mix of products sold;
• the management of inventory;
• the level of international sales;
• continued compliance with industry standards; and
• general economic conditions.

Our gross margin is affected by a number of factors including product mix, the recognition of license and other revenues for which there may be little or no corresponding cost of revenues, product pricing, the allocation between international and domestic sales, the percentages of direct sales and sales to resellers, and manufacturing and component costs. The markets for our products are characterized by falling average selling prices. We expect that, as a result of competitive pressures, our product end of life announcement, and other factors, gross profit as a percentage of revenue for our videoconferencing semiconductor products will continue to decrease. Average selling prices realized to date for our IP telephony semiconductors have been lower than those historically attained for our videoconferencing semiconductor products, resulting in lower gross margins. In the likely event that we encounter significant price competition in the markets for our products, we could be at a significant disadvantage compared to our competitors, many of whom have substantially greater resources, and therefore may be better able to withstand an extended period of downward pricing pressure.

Variations in timing of sales may cause significant fluctuations in future operating results. Because a significant portion of our business may be derived from orders placed by a limited number of large customers, including original equipment manufacturers, the timing of such orders can cause significant fluctuations in our operating results. Anticipated orders from customers may fail to materialize. Delivery schedules may be deferred or canceled for a number of reasons, including changes in specific customer requirements or economic conditions. The adverse impact of a shortfall in our revenues may be magnified by our inability to adjust spending to compensate for such shortfall. Announcements by our competitors or us of new products and technologies could cause customers to defer purchases of our existing products, which would also have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. As a result of these and other factors, it is likely that in some or all future periods our operating results will be below the expectations of investors, which would likely result in a significant reduction in the market price of our common stock.

Historically, a significant portion of our sales has been to relatively few customers, although the composition of these customers has varied. Revenues from our ten largest customers for the quarters ended June 30, 2003 and 2002, accounted for approximately 80% of total revenues in each quarter. Revenues from our ten largest customers for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2003, 2002 and 2001, accounted for approximately 62%, 73% and 48%, respectively, of total revenues. Substantially all of our product sales have been made, and are expected to continue to be made, on a purchase order basis. None of our customers has entered into a long-term agreement requiring it to purchase our products. In the future, we will need to gain purchase orders for our products to earn additional revenue. Further, substantially all of our license and other revenues are nonrecurring.

IP telephony is an emerging market that is characterized by rapid changes in customer requirements, frequent introductions of new and enhanced products, and continuing and rapid technological advancement. To compete successfully in this emerging market, we must continue to design, develop, manufacture, and sell new and enhanced semiconductor and IP telephony software products and services that provide increasingly higher levels of performance and reliability at lower cost. These new and enhanced products must take advantage of technological advancements and changes, and respond to new customer requirements. Our success in designing, developing, manufacturing, and selling such products and services will depend on a variety of factors, including:

• the identification of market demand for new products;
• the scalability of our IP telephony software products;
• product and feature selection;
• timely implementation of product design and development;
• product performance;
• cost-effectiveness of products under development;
• effective manufacturing processes; and
• success of promotional efforts.

Additionally, we may also be required to collaborate with third parties to develop our products and may not be able to do so on a timely and cost-effective basis, if at all. We have in the past experienced delays in the development of new products and the enhancement of existing products, and such delays will likely occur in the future. If we are unable, due to resource constraints or technological or other reasons, to develop and introduce new or enhanced products in a timely manner, if such new or enhanced products do not achieve sufficient market acceptance, or if such new product introductions decrease demand for existing products, our operating results would decline and our business would not grow.

Our IP telephony software and semiconductor products, including our hosted iPBX, Packet8 telephone service and our Audacity family of semiconductors, have lengthy sales cycles, and we may incur substantial sales and marketing expenses and expend significant management effort without making a sale. A customer's decision to purchase our products often involves a significant commitment of its resources and a lengthy product evaluation and qualification process. We do not possess the capital infrastructure required to invest in extensive marketing or advertising campaigns that may be required in order to sell these products. In addition, the length of our sales cycles will vary depending on the type of customer to whom we are selling and the product being sold. Even after making the decision to purchase our products, our customers may deploy our products slowly. Timing of deployment can vary widely and will depend on various factors, including:

• the size of the network deployment;
• the complexity of our customers' network environments;
• our customers' skill sets;
• the hardware and software configuration and customization necessary to deploy our products; and
• our customers' ability to finance their purchase of our products.

As a result, it is difficult for us to predict the quarter in which our customers may purchase our IP telephony products, and our revenue and operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter.

The development and marketing of our IP telephony products will continue to place a significant strain on our limited personnel, management, and other resources. While the pace of economic growth in the San Francisco Bay Area (where our corporate headquarters are located) has slowed, competition for highly-skilled engineering, sales, marketing, and support personnel has remained strong. Our future success depends upon the continued services of our executive officers and other key employees who have critical industry experience and relationships that we rely on to implement our business plan. None of our officers or key employees are bound by employment agreements for any specific term. The loss of the services of any of our officers or key employees could delay the development and introduction of, and negatively impact our ability to sell our products which could adversely affect our financial results and impair our growth. We currently do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees.

We outsource the manufacturing of our semiconductor products to independent foundries and as such do not have internal manufacturing capabilities to meet our customers' demands. We have shifted the manufacture of our voice over IP semiconductors to an affiliate of STMicroelectronics NV, or STM, from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, or TSMC. STM or its contract manufacturer, TSMC, will be the sole manufacturer of our semiconductor products. Furthermore, to the extent TSMC is utilized, Taiwan is always subject to geological or geopolitical disturbances that could instantly cut off such supply. We also rely on other third party manufacturers for packaging and testing of our semiconductors.

We do not have long-term purchase agreements with our contract manufacturers or our component suppliers. There can be no assurance that our subcontract manufacturers will be able or willing to reliably manufacture our products, in volumes, on a cost-effective basis or in a timely manner. For our semiconductor products, the time to port our technology to another foundry, the time to qualify the new versions of product, and the cost of this effort as well as the tooling associated with wafer production would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. For our consumer videophones, IP telephones and media hub devices that are used with our hosted iPBX and Packet8 voice and video IP telephone service, we rely on the availability of these semiconductor products. These devices are also sourced solely from certain overseas contract manufacturers and partners, and are not available from any other manufacturer.

Our products have lead times of up to several months, and are built to forecasts that are necessarily imprecise. Because of our practice of building our products to necessarily imprecise forecasts, it is likely that, from time to time, we will have either excess or insufficient product inventory. Excess inventory levels would subject us to the risk of inventory obsolescence and the risk that our selling prices may drop below our inventory costs, while insufficient levels of inventory may negatively affect relations with customers. For instance, our customers rely upon our ability to meet committed delivery dates, and any disruption in the supply of our products could result in legal action from our customers, loss of customers or harm to our ability to attract new customers. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Many of the potential customers for our hosted iPBX product and Packet8 voice and video IP telephone service have requested that our products and services be designed to interoperate with their existing networks, each of which may have different specifications and use multiple standards. Our customers' networks may contain multiple generations of products from different vendors that have been added over time as their networks have grown and evolved. Our products must interoperate with these products as well as with future products in order to meet our customers' requirements. In some cases, we may be required to modify our product designs to achieve a sale, which may result in a longer sales cycle, increased research and development expense, and reduced operating margins. If our products do not interoperate with existing equipment or software in our customers' networks, installations could be delayed, orders for our products could be canceled or our products could be returned. This could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our Packet8 telephone service depends on the availability of third party network service providers that provide telephone numbers and PSTN call termination and origination services for our customers. Many of these network service providers are financially affected by the downturn in the telecommunications industry and may be forced to terminate the services that we depend on. The time to interface our technology to another network service provider, if available, and qualify this new service could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our hosted iPBX and Packet8 IP telephone service must successfully integrate with products from other vendors, such as gateways to traditional telephone systems. As a result, when problems occur in a network, it may be difficult to identify the source of the problem. The occurrence of hardware and software errors, whether caused by our hosted iPBX solution, Packet8 service or another vendor's products, may result in the delay or loss of market acceptance of our products and any necessary revisions may force us to incur significant expenses. The occurrence of some of these types of problems may seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products and introduce new products or new technologies. If our competitors successfully introduce new products or enhance their existing products, this could reduce the sales or market acceptance of our products and services, increase price competition or make our products obsolete. To be competitive, we must continue to invest significant resources in research and development, sales and marketing, and customer support. We may not have sufficient resources to make these investments or to make the technological advances necessary to be competitive, which in turn will cause our business to suffer.

In addition, our focus on developing a range of technology products, including semiconductors and related embedded software, hosted iPBX solutions, and the Packet8 telephone service products, places a significant strain on our research and development resources. Competitors that focus on one aspect of technology, such as software or semiconductors, may have a considerable advantage over us. In addition, many of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, are substantially larger, and have greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, technical, and other resources. For example, certain competitors in the market for our semiconductor products maintain their own semiconductor foundries and may therefore benefit from certain capacity, cost and technical advantages. Many also have greater name recognition and a larger installed base of products than we have. Competition in our markets may result in significant price reductions. As a result of their greater resources, many current and potential competitors may be better able than us to initiate and withstand significant price competition or downturns in the economy. There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to compete effectively, and any failure to do so would harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We are entering into new market areas and our success is partly dependent on our ability to forge new marketing and engineering partnerships. IP telephony communication systems are extremely complex and few, if any, companies possess all the required technology components needed to build a complete end to end solution. We will likely need to enter into partnerships to augment our development programs and to assist us in marketing complete solutions to our targeted customers. We may not be able to develop such partnerships in the course of our product development. Even if we do establish the necessary partnerships, we may not be able to adequately capitalize on these partnerships to aid in the success of our business.

We rely in part on trademark, copyright, and trade secret law to protect our intellectual property in the United States and abroad. We seek to protect our software, documentation, and other written materials under trade secret and copyright law, which afford only limited protection. We also rely in part on patent law to protect our intellectual property in the United States and internationally. We hold fifty-four United States patents and have a number of United States and foreign patent applications pending. We cannot predict whether such pending patent applications will result in issued patents. We may not be able to protect our proprietary rights in the United States or internationally (where effective intellectual property protection may be unavailable or limited), and competitors may independently develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technology, duplicate our technology or design around any patent of ours. We have in the past licensed and in the future expect to continue licensing our technology to others; many of who are located or may be located abroad. There are no assurances that such licensees will protect our technology from misappropriation. Moreover, litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others, or to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of management time and resources and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. Any settlement or adverse determination in such litigation would also subject us to significant liability.

There has been substantial litigation in the semiconductor, electronics, and related industries regarding intellectual property rights, and from time to time third parties may claim infringement by us of their intellectual property rights. Our broad range of technology, including systems, digital and analog circuits, software, and semiconductors, increases the likelihood that third parties may claim infringement by us of their intellectual property rights. If we were found to be infringing on the intellectual property rights of any third party, we could be subject to liabilities for such infringement, which could be material. We could also be required to refrain from using, manufacturing or selling certain products or using certain processes, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. From time to time, we have received, and may continue to receive in the future, notices of claims of infringement, misappropriation or misuse of other parties' proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that we will prevail in these discussions and actions or that other actions alleging infringement by us of third party patents will not be asserted or prosecuted against the Company.

We rely upon certain technology, including hardware and software, licensed from third parties. There can be no assurance that the technology licensed by us will continue to provide competitive features and functionality or that licenses for technology currently utilized by us or other technology which we may seek to license in the future will be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The loss of, or inability to maintain existing licenses could result in shipment delays or reductions until equivalent technology or suitable alternative products could be developed, identified, licensed and integrated, and could harm our business. These licenses are on standard commercial terms made generally available by the companies providing the licenses. The cost and terms of these licenses individually are not material to our business.

Circuit-switched telephony networks feature very high reliability, with a guaranteed quality of service. In addition, such networks have imperceptible delay and consistently satisfactory audio quality. Emerging broadband IP networks, such as LANs, WANs, and the internet, or emerging last mile technologies such as cable, digital subscriber lines, and wireless local loop, may not be suitable for telephony unless such networks and technologies can provide reliability and quality consistent with these standards.

In addition to reliability and quality standards, the market acceptance of telephony over broadband IP networks is dependent upon the adoption of industry standards so that products from multiple manufacturers are able to communicate with each other. Our IP telephony products rely heavily on standards such as SIP, H.323, MGCP and Megaco to interoperate with other vendors' equipment. There is currently a lack of agreement among industry leaders about which standard should be used for a particular application, and about the definition of the standards themselves. These standards, as well as audio and video compression standards, continue to evolve. We also must comply with certain rules and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding electromagnetic radiation and safety standards established by Underwriters Laboratories, as well as similar regulations and standards applicable in other countries. Standards are continuously being modified and replaced. As standards evolve, we may be required to modify our existing products or develop and support new versions of our products. The failure of our products to comply, or delays in compliance, with various existing and evolving industry standards could delay or interrupt volume production of our IP telephony products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

At present there are few laws, regulations or rulings that specifically address access to or commerce on the internet, including IP telephony. We are unable to predict the impact, if any, that future legislation, legal decisions or regulations concerning the internet may have on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Regulation may be targeted towards, among other things, assessing access or settlement charges, imposing taxes related to internet communications, imposing tariffs or regulations based on encryption concerns or the characteristics and quality of products and services, imposing regulations and requirements related to the handling of emergency 911 services, any of which could restrict our business or increase our cost of doing business. The increasing growth of the broadband IP telephony market and popularity of broadband IP telephony products and services heighten the risk that governments or other legislative bodies will seek to regulate broadband IP telephony and the internet. In addition, large, established telecommunication companies may devote substantial lobbying efforts to influence the regulation of the broadband IP telephony market, which may be contrary to our interests. Recent federal legislation provides for a significant deregulation of the U.S. telecommunications industry, including the local exchange, long distance and cable television industries. This legislation remains subject to judicial review and additional Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, rulemaking. As a result, we cannot predict the legislation's effect on our future operations. Many regulatory actions are under way or are being contemplated by federal and state authorities regarding important items. These actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

To date, the FCC has treated internet service providers as data service providers. Data service providers are currently exempt from federal and state regulations governing common carriers, including the obligation to pay access charges and contribute to the universal service fund. The FCC is currently examining the status of internet service providers and the services they provide. If the FCC were to determine that internet service providers, or the services they provide, are subject to FCC regulation, including the payment of access charges and contribution to the universal service funds, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

The operation of our Packet8 voice and video service depends on our ability to avoid and mitigate any interruptions in service or reduced capacity for customers. Interruptions in service or performance problems, for whatever reason, could undermine confidence in our services and cause us to lose customers or make it more difficult to attract new ones. In addition, because our services may be critical to the businesses of our customers, any significant interruption in service could result in lost profits or other loss to our customers. Although we attempt to disclaim liability in our service agreements, a court might not enforce a limitation on liability, which could expose us to financial loss. In addition, we may provide our customers with guaranteed service level commitments. If we are unable to meet these guaranteed service level commitments as a result of service interruptions, we may be obligated to provide credits, generally in the form of free service for a short period of time, to our customers, which could negatively affect our operating results.

The failure of any equipment or facility on our network, or those of our partners or customers, could result in the interruption of customer service until necessary repairs are made or replacement equipment is installed. Network failures, delays and errors could also result from natural disasters, terrorist acts, power losses, security breaches and computer viruses. These failures, faults or errors could cause delays, service interruptions, expose us to customer liability or require expensive modifications that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.