NHC announces marketing partnership with Walker and Associates
Contract expected to produce new revenue stream for NHC beginning this
fiscal year
MONTREAL, Oct. 13 /CNW/ - NHC Communications Inc. (TSE:NHC) today
announced a strategic marketing partnership agreement with Walker and
Associates, Inc. headquartered in Welcome, N.C. to market NHC's remotely
controller physical layer cross-connect solutions.
The agreement calls for Walker, recognized as a premier source of
state-of-the-art products for telecommunications companies, to market NHC's
integrated copper cross-connect switch - a true any-to-any copper
cross-connect that assists competitive local exchange carriers (CLECS) in
performing remotely four major voice and data and digital subscriber line
(DSL) functions: loop qualification, line provisioning, service migration and
fallback switching.
"This strategic marketing partnership with Walker is a major milestone in
NHC's growth," said NHC President and CEO Sylvain Abitbol. "Walker's
commitment to us, a new vendor, demonstrates its confidence in NHC and our
product."
"Our association with Walker will seamlessly integrate the two companies'
sales forces and significantly increase our customer base. We believe this
agreement will bring new revenue for NHC in the current fiscal year. So, more
than firmly establishing a foothold in the marketplace, this partnership will
expand our presence in it."
The agreement puts NHC in a select league with manufacturers of
telecommunications products represented by Walker, such as Lucent
Technologies, Tellabs, Marconi Communications, NEC, CarrierAccess, B-Line
Telecom, Telect, Alcatel USA, Apex, Adtran and ADC.
Walker Vice President of Marketing Steve Fields said, "We are excited
about the addition of NHC's integrated copper cross-connect switch to our
family of product offerings. NHC continues to set new standards in the
telecommunications industry and its addition to our portfolio makes our
offerings more attractive than ever to our customers. That's why we have
offered such a high level of commitment to a new partner - because we expect
this partnership to grow in the future."
The marketing partnership with Walker is the second major partnership NHC
has announced in recent weeks. In August, NHC and ECI Telecom Ltd.
(NASDAQ:ECIL) announced successful interoperability testing between NHC's
VCCS(TM) solution and ECI's HiFOCus(TM) to provide a versatile and robust
physically managed Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers solution to NHC
and ECI local exchange customers.
About NHC
NHC Communications Inc. (www.nhc.com) is an international leader in the
design and manufacture of innovative physical layer high-speed switched access
solutions for established and next-generation voice/data networks. With a
unique range of technologies developed from years of experience, NHC is now at
the heart of today's corporate enterprise service market and the
telecommunications industry.
About Walker and Associates, Inc.:
Walker and Associates, Inc. (www.walkerfirst.com) is the premier source
of state-of-the-art network products including transport, transmission, and
access equipment to the companies building the networks that are fueling the
current telecommunications boom. Walker redefines excellence in the industry
through custom kitting, quality installation, expert integration, and
unsurpassed service. Walker is a major player in the telecommunications world
market with many remote sales offices and six warehouses throughout the U.S.
and one, internationally, in London, England. The company is celebrating its
30th year in existence with a strong presence in the industry and the market
as a whole.
Statements included here, which are not historical in nature, are forward-
looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including without limitation,
statements as to management's beliefs, strategies, plans, expectations or
opinions in connection with company performance, which are based on a number
of assumptions concerning future conditions that may ultimately prove to be
inaccurate. In addition, other forward-looking statements that may be included
here must be qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those achieved in the past or those expected by the
companies. These include: rapid technological change along with the need to
continually develop new products; the company's dependence on a dominant
product line; competition; the companies' dependence on key employees;
difficulties in managing the companies' growth; the company's dependence upon
certain customers and certain suppliers; the companies' dependence upon
proprietary rights; risks of third party claims of infringement; and
government regulation.
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For further information: NHC Communications Inc.: Sylvain Abitbol,
President & CEO, (514) 734-4302/1-800-361-1965, s.abitbol@nhc.com; Sylvain
Brossard, CA, Vice President, Finance & Operations,
(514) 734-4304/1-800-361-1965, s.brossard@nhc.com; Investor Relations:
Martti Kangas or Andrea Berry, The Barnes Organization Inc., (416) 367-5000,
mkangas@barnesir.com/aberry@barnesir.com; Walker and Associates: Steve
Fields, Vice-President of Marketing, stevefi@walkerasfoc.com |
