3Com to Spur Wireless Data Growth With High-Speed, Packet-Switched CDMA Platform
Business/Technology Editors
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 1999--
System Will Boost Mobile Users' Data Access Speeds to 64 Kbps
and Enhance Network Scalability for Service Providers
A packet-switched wireless network platform from 3Com Corporation
will soon deliver unprecedented wireless data access speeds and new
network economies to service providers and their mobile subscribers.
The 64-kbps wireless module for the 3Com Total Control(R)
multi-service access platform is scheduled to ship in the fourth
quarter to wireless infrastructure OEMs, as well as to service
providers who wish to offer wireless Internet/intranet access services
to their customers.
The new system is expected to stimulate new growth in the mobile
data networking market by delivering significantly higher network
access speeds to subscribers while bringing the networking
efficiencies of packet-switching technology to the wireless service
provider market.
The Yankee Group reported last month that it expects the mobile
data market to ramp up over the next 24 months because of two trends:
the convergence of wireless networks and the Internet and the
deployment of packet-switched wireless systems that enable
higher-speed networking. The Boston-based research firm predicts that
the number of North American mobile data subscribers will triple
between 1999 and 2002, for example, growing from 3.38 million to 10.64
million during that time period.
High-Speed Wireless Access to Support New Applications
"This new generation of CDMA data technology makes capacity and
connection improvements that will support a broader variety of
applications and thus attract new users to a wireless access
solution," said Irfan Ali, Senior Vice President and General Manager,
3Com Carrier Systems. "In addition, this new system yields access link
efficiencies that enable service providers to easily scale their
networks in step with subscriber growth."
Added Naqi A. Jaffery, wireless industry analyst for Dataquest,
an information technology research firm based in Stamford, Conn.: "All
the elements are falling into place for the accelerated growth of
wireless data. CDMA operators are eager to quickly enter this market
and are demanding data capabilities from their suppliers."
The new wireless platform will join the Interworking Function
(IWF) of 3Com's Total Control platform, which already accepts incoming
circuit-switched CDMA signals and transports them over an IP backbone
infrastructure to their destination at standard 14.4-kbps CDMA speeds.
IWF enables service providers to converge voice PCS services with
newer data PCS applications across an integrated infrastructure. Their
customers can use CDMA data connections for sending and receiving fax
messages and e-mail, browsing the Internet, and accessing their
corporate intranets (see 3Com press release, "VPNs Go Wireless: 3Com
Adds Tunneling To CDMA Data Networks," May 3, 1999).
Both the circuit- and packet-switched versions of 3Com's IWF
technology free users from telephone connect times and enable them to
bypass the public switched telephone network (PSTN) for call
completion, allowing them to save on PSTN toll charges. CDMA is a very
efficient, high-capacity technology that spreads multiple
conversations across a wide segment of the broadcast spectrum. Each
telephone or data call is assigned a special code that identifies it
as part of a unique conversation.
Packet-Switching Boosts Scalability
As with landline networks, packet-switching offers significant
efficiencies that enable greater network scalability and support
larger volumes of customers than circuit-switched networks. Instead of
nailing up connections between two points and leaving bandwidth idle
during periods when no transmission is taking place, packet-switching
allows full use of network bandwidth. It does so through the use of
statistical multiplexing, which separates packets and disperses them
to fill the entire transmission link, then reassembles them at their
destination. In addition, users do not have to manually set up and
tear down phone calls to communicate using packet-switched networks.
Instead, they can be "always connected," much as users on a local-area
network are continually online.
3Com's award-winning Total Control multi-service access platform
provides telecommunications carriers, service providers and large
enterprises with a powerful and complete networking solution,
including support for remote access, IP telephony and virtual private
networking applications. The software-upgradable platform is designed
for service reliability, using redundant power supplies and modular
application cards to prevent a single point of failure.
About 3Com
With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corporation
connects more people to information in more ways than any other
networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access
products and network system solutions to large, medium and small
enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and
consumers. 3Com -- More connected.(tm) For further information, visit
3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the press site at
www.3com.com/pressbox.
3Com and Total Control are registered trademarks and More
connected. is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. All other company and
product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which
they are associated.
--30--ap/sf*
CONTACT: 3Com Corp.
Steven M. Plavny, 847-262-1329
Cell: 847-525-9917
steven_plavny@3Com.com
or
Steven M. Ostrowski, 847-262-1026
Cell: 630-542-3726
steven_m_ostrowski@3Com.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
PRODUCT
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