American Power Conversion Expands its DC Power Protection Offering to the Home with New Voice-over-IP Capable Primary Power Unit for Customer Premise Equipment
APC's New PowerShield(TM) PacketCable Compliant Solution Offers Local Power and Surge Protection for Cable Telephony, Wireless Local Loop and Fiber to the
Home Communications
WEST KINGSTON, R.I., Sept 4 /PRNewswire/ -- American Power Conversion (APC) today announced an expansion to its DC power protection offering with a - 48 V DC battery backup unit specifically designed to meet the PacketCable standard for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony equipment. The recent emerging market for cable telephony using VoIP technology has spawned the PacketCable standard, currently in development to introduce uniformity in telecommunications hardware.
According to the Strategis Group, a world leader in telephony consulting, 80 percent of U.S. households want the convenience and benefits of bundled communications services including local and long distance phone services, high-speed Internet, and entertainment programming. The convergence of the cable and telecommunications industries offers consumers the convenience of obtaining all telephony services from one carrier through the same architecture. APC's PowerShield offers cable telephony, wireless local loop (WLL) and fiber to the home (FTTH) services a simple, cost effective local power solution for the Network Interface Unit (NIU). The PowerShield helps to ensure that home network communications remain running during power disturbances and outages, and helps increase the availability of telephony systems, including primary line communications, such as 911.
"If the Network Interface Unit (NIU) which is located at the end user's home, were to fail, there would be no life-line service for its customers," said Dan Paone, vice-president product line management, Antec Digital Systems. "The APC PowerShield provides reliable, robust powering to a critical network component, enabling us to provide a very reliable uninterrupted telephony service solution to our customers."
"Businesses using access networks or communication systems depend on having power for vital links to the Internet," said Ed Bednarcik, General Manager, Business Networks Group at American Power Conversion. "APC is pleased to have the ability to offer power protection solutions that provide reliable battery backup and local power for all telecommunications applications from high-end bandwidth business applications, like Telehouses and Multiple System Operators (MSOs) to in-home network interface unit (NIU) applications."
These technologies provide voice-over digital, high-capacity networks through both circuit switched and emerging IP architectures. In order to match the level of reliability demanded in the traditional phone network space, these devices should be outfitted with battery backup technology to help ensure essential availability, particularly with primary line communications such as 911 capabilities.
In addition to providing up to 8-10 hours of battery back-up runtime for communications services during a power outage, APC's PowerShield also serves as the primary powering supply for telephone communication ports. The device, which offers batteries with up to 5-10 year average life span, also notifies the end user or MSO of battery status. The PowerShield will notify the service provider of the power supply's health and status. This includes notification if the battery: is in use, signifying an outage; needs replacing; is missing or is not properly connected. These communication features provide proactive monitoring and maintenance that help keep the end user up and running during any power disturbance, particularly for emergency calls.
APC's new PowerShield is available immediately worldwide. To learn more about APC's award-winning, AC and DC power protection and management solutions and services, visit APC's Web site at www.apcc.com or call APC at 800-877- 4080.
About ANTEC Corporation:
ANTEC Corp. (www.antec.com) is an international communications technology company serving the broadband information transport industries. ANTEC specializes in the manufacturing and distribution of products for hybrid fiber/coax broadband networks, as well as the design and engineering of these networks. Headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, ANTEC has sales offices in Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America; a major divisional office in Denver, Colorado; and manufacturing facilities in Juarez, Mexico, El Paso, Texas and Rock Falls, Illinois.
About American Power Conversion
Founded in 1981, American Power Conversion (Nasdaq: APCC) is a leading provider of global, end-to-end availability enhancement solutions which include surge suppressors, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), DC-based power systems, cabling and connectivity solutions, power conditioning equipment, related software, and professional and consulting services for Nonstop Networking(TM). APC's comprehensive products, services and accessory offering, which is designed for both home and corporate environments, improves the availability, manageability and performance of sensitive electronic, network, communication and industrial equipment of all sizes. APC, which is headquartered in West Kingston, Rhode Island, reported sales of $1.337 billion for the year ended December 31, 1999 and is a Fortune 1000 and S&P 500 company.
All trademarks are the property of their owners. Additional information about APC and its global end-to-end solutions can be found by accessing the APC World Wide Web site at www.apcc.com or by calling 800-877-4080.
For more information contact:
Media:
Juli Dexter, APC director of media relations worldwide, 800-788-2208
ext. 2373, jdexter@apcc.com
Ron Seredian, APC senior media relations manager, 661-259-7799,
rseredia@apcc.com
Amy Just, APC media relations manager, 800-788-2208 ext 4042,
ajust@apcc.com
Kristen Gibson, APC media relations manager, 800-788-2208 ext 2967,
kgibson@apcc.com
Investors:
Debbie Grey, APC investor relations manager, 800-788- 2208, ext. 2994,
dgrey@apcc.com
SOURCE American Power Conversion
CO: American Power Conversion; ANTEC Corporation
ST: Rhode Island
IN: OIL CPR
SU: PDT
09/04/2000 08:05 EDT prnewswire.com |
