3Com CEO Eric Benhamou Outlines a More Connected Lifestyle in the New Millennium During CES Keynote
1/6/00 11:46:40 AM
LAS VEGAS, Jan 6, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- "The new decade will bring a new era of consumer devices that are more connected, more intelligent, and more personal," Eric Benhamou, chairman and CEO of 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) said today during a keynote presentation to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. "The nature of our connections to information will become much simpler, more reliable, and richer in terms of converging voice, video and data together."
The new decade will also see the number of connections made around the world increase to hundreds of millions and even billions, predicted Benhamou, and devices will become smarter so that they will behave differently for different users.
Benhamou added that further simplicity and reliability of consumer technology is necessary to keep pace with the changing nature of customers. "If you think about who the networking industry is touching today, you quickly realize that they are more often people who have very little to do with technology, so we must find more innovative ways to make technology enjoyable and accessible for everyone."
To demonstrate recent developments in delivering simplicity to consumers, 3Com opened The Connected Home, a model house in Las Vegas displaying available home technologies for a more connected lifestyle. The home is outfitted with 3Com?s HomeConnect(tm) products, including the HomeConnect home network phoneline kit that uses existing home phone wires and jacks to connect multiple PCs and provide reliable connections and unparalleled ease of setup and use. In addition, the home uses the 3Com(R) HomeConnect PC digital camera and 3Com?s HomeConnect cable modems to provide high speed, always on Internet access. It?s the way a family could connect their home today.
During his presentation, Benhamou demonstrated several 3Com products that will help drive the more connected lifestyle in the new millennium, including the 3Com AirConnect(tm) wireless LAN that will deliver high-speed wireless local area network connections to workers who access e-mail, corporate information or the Internet anywhere in the office. "Wireless connectivity will make an unprecedented leap in the coming years, and it?s only by wireless connections that we will be able to feel the liberty of connectivity to information," Benhamou said.
Benhamou also introduced Don Fotsch, vice president and general manager of 3Com?s Internet appliance division, who demonstrated special purpose devices such as smart telephones that interact with Palm devices. Fotsch also said that 3Com plans to launch a simple-to-use special purpose Internet appliance later this year.
A more connected lifestyle is based, by some measure, on e-business supported over an intranet, an extranet, and the Internet. "Behind every one of these e-business transactions, there has to be a network that is simple to administer and extremely reliable," Benhamou said. "We call these networks e-Networks because they ensure that e-business applications, systems and network resources all perform in harmony."
Impact on Community and Society
Beyond virtual communities that the Internet has helped create, it is also greatly impacting our local geographic communities, said Benhamou. Community networks are emerging around metropolitan areas that provide shared high-bandwidth access among public agencies, schools and neighborhoods. As a result, communities are building highly integrated services that, for example, connect fire departments with city maps and building plans. In addition, the Internet is strengthening the ties between different parts of the local public sector as well as between the public and private sectors, resulting in a higher quality of life and stronger community infrastructures.
"At the same time, we also must be cognizant of a growing gap that separates the people that have routine access to the Internet and those who don?t, and those with technology skills from those without," said Benhamou. "The Digital Divide has the potential to jeopardize our economic vitality and limit who receives the many benefits of pervasive access to information."
To help bridge the Digital Divide, 3Com entered into an alliance with the city of Boston to develop quality education programs and provide comprehensive access to information technology. As a result, Boston now has the first fully wired urban school system in the country and the ratio of networked computers to students has dropped from 1-in-63 to 1-in-6. In addition, 3Com, in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, also recently announced its Urban Challenge program which will provide $1 million in equipment and training to ten cities to help them connect their students.
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