To: puborectalis who wrote (87488 ) 3/8/2000 10:43:00 PM From: puborectalis Respond to of 120523
Just the Beginning.........Wi-LAN Signs New Agreement for Wireless Internet Access Rollout in Europe CALGARY, ALBERTA and STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN-- TELIA'S SUCCESSFUL HIGH-SPEED, POINT-TO-MULTIPOINT NETWORK FOCUSES ON DEPLOYMENT AND PRODUCT SALES TO DELIVER INCREASED SALES VOLUMES IN SHORTER TIME PERIOD Wi-LAN, an innovator of high-speed wireless data/Internet communications, announced today a new long-term agreement to expand its broadband wireless Internet access into Europe. Wi-LAN signed a 2-year, supply agreement with Telia GlobalCast Internetworking AB (``Telia'), a Swedish wireless Internet access provider who has forecasted to purchase U.S. $16 Million of Wi-LAN wireless product. This supply agreement supersedes the distribution agreement announced on October 7, 1999. Telia is a major corporate client in the Nordic region and this announcement focuses on covering the selected target areas and on meeting or beating our contract goals. ``We are delighted that a public carrier such as Telia has confirmed the performance of our product and we are pleased with the targets Telia has set for deployment over the next two years,' says Bill Hews, Wi-LAN president and COO. ``This agreement positions us to focus on deployment and delivering higher product sales volumes with increased reliability on timing.' EUROPEAN SUCCESS IN HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS Telia and Wi-LAN are providers of high-speed wireless Internet access offering data transfer rates as high as 25Mbps, the two companies have already had success with Telia's high-speed wireless Internet service CityNet in Stockholm, Gothenberg and Malmo. To meet and exceed the planned deployment rate for the next two years, Telia and Wi-LAN plan to focus on delivering service in Sweden, Finland and Denmark as Telia has confirmed customer orders of US $1 Million. Telia will offer three levels of wireless Internet services, depending on specific needs, to the small office/home office and corporate business users. Wi-LAN will supply Telia with technical design, products and training for network implementation. The system uses a series of nodes, base stations and antennas to transmit data using Internet protocols -- Wi-LAN's Ethernet bridges form the core of these nodes. Future implementations will use Wi-LAN's I.WiLL access point, a W-OFDM (Wideband Orthogonal Frequency Division ! Multiplexing) product, delivering speeds of 30 Mbps. Telia and Wi-LAN are currently expanding the network throughout Sweden and are aiming for full coverage of the Nordic markets by mid-2000. ``The Telia offering in Sweden has been so successful that we feel the time is right to enter the European and U.S. markets,' says Osten Makitalo, CTO and Senior VP Technology of Telia Mobile. ``Moreover, its success is a direct result of the partnership with Wi-LAN.' Telia stated an interest to act as a public network operator outside the Nordic Countries in Europe as well as in the United States and would like to purchase Wi-LAN product in connection with this expansion. Wi-LAN has agreed to sell products to Telia when these sales are not in conflict with Wi-LAN's existing activities in these countries.