Westell Contract...Might as well put the whole thing up on the board?
Westell Signs Pact with City Tel to Provide Canadian City of Prince
Rupert, B.C.
with High-Speed Internet Access
Canadian City Gets Connected with Westell's ADSL Digital Modem System
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Aurora, IL and Prince Rupert, B.C. (November 24, 1997) - Westell
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WSTL) and City Tel today jointly announced
that the Canadian city of Prince Rupert, British Columbia on BC's
Northcoast has signed a three-year pact for Asymmetrical Digital
Subscriber Line (ADSL) service using Westell's ADSL systems. The local
phone company, City Tel, recently expanded to provide Internet access to
the city's business, government, educational and residential users
through its ISP, CityLink.
"What Prince Rupert City Telephones is doing is absolutely unique. I am
not aware of any comparatively sized communities, anywhere, that have
the kind of communications abilities that have been deployed in Prince
Rupert," said Dan Miller, North Coast Minister Legislation Assembly.
"The adding of ADSL to this suite of high-speed services is the most
recent step in making Prince Rupert the most wired community in Western
Canada."
City Tel has partnered with Westell to offer ADSL to its subscribers.
Approximately 1,000 lines are being initially deployed in Prince Rupert.
The city's hotels, bed and breakfasts, schools, museum, daily newspaper
and many of the shipping-, fishing- and pulp manufacturing-related
industries already support active web sites. With Westell's ADSL
technology, the city's Internet service becomes even faster and more
efficient. Applications include streaming video, video-on-demand,
distance learning and telemedicine.
This service will provide a distinct benefit for tourists and residents
as they gain access to the World Wide Web at high speeds and enjoy the
technology only possible at higher speeds. Prince Rupert is the
transportation hub of the north coast and a major center for the tourism
industry. The City of Prince Rupert will also be hosting an
international telecommunications conference next June.
"We have made a substantial commitment to make Prince Rupert the
telecommunications hub of the northcoast," said Prince Rupert mayor Jack
Mussellum. "We believe that by investing in a state-of-the-art
infrastructure in combination with the present quality lifestyle
available, we can attract new information-based business to our
community."
City Tel's General Manager also believes strongly in this bold move
forward, "We are Western Canada's only independent telephone company,"
said Bruce Kerr. "Our level of service is untouchable, and now our
Internet access will complement that service. We want companies to know
that all their communication needs can be met and rest assured that we
will move with them into the Millennium." The deployment of ADSL is part
of a larger broadband initiative in Prince Rupert. The initiative
involves laying a fibre backbone throughout the city, allowing
businesses, institutions and schools access to a 10/100 Mbps connection
for use in online application requiring more bandwidth such as video
conferencing. All municipal departments are also being connected on a
high-speed local area network and will be offering services on-line.
City Tel went through a rigorous selection process and selected Westell
as the ADSL partner of choice. Westell will be supplying a turnkey
solution to City Tel, and will be taking care of the preassembly,
installation and integration of the system end-to-end.
"We are very pleased to be selected to partner with City Tel. Soon
residents, businesses and visitors to Prince Rupert will experience the
world at their fingertips," said Joseph Elchakieh, President of Westell
Canada. "With the utilization of Westell's ADSL systems, Prince Rupert
will have a world-class network that will invite entrepreneurial
companies to be based in Prince Rupert, where they can enjoy its natural
beauty and the convenience and efficiency of its telecommunications
network."
Prince Rupert will be installing FlexCap2O immediately and will be
evolving to the SuperVisionO Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer
(DSLAM) in 1998. FlexCap2 and SuperVision are both equipped with rate
adaptive DSL (RADSL) which gives network service providers the ability
to offer high-speed data services for Internet access, remote LAN
extension, telecommuting and video services over their existing copper
access network.
City Tel is a municipally owned telephone company with over $11 million
in annual revenues. The City of Prince Rupert purchased City Tel in 1912
and since then the local telco has been a leader in the community,
contributing to the city's general revenues fund, thus enabling the city
to buffer the municipal taxes by about ten percent. It provides complete
telecommunications services to the area through its Mobility, Business
Services, Residential Services and ISP, CityLink. City Tel has worked
closely with a number of partners and vendors on the provision of this
high speed Internet service including Deloitte Consulting, Cisco
Systems, Ikon Business Services and IBM.
Westell Technologies is a holding company for Westell Inc., Conference
Plus Inc. and Westell WorldWide Services Inc. Westell Inc. is a leading
worldwide innovator and manufacturer of xDSL. systems and
telecommunications access products, with corporate headquarters in
Aurora, Illinois. Westell's xDSL products are currently in use or trial
by many companies world-wide, including Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bell
Canada, BT, GTE, MCI, Quebec Telephone, SBC, Saskatchewan Telephone,
Telecom Italia, US West and leading Internet service providers. In
addition to developing and manufacturing xDSL and non-DSL data and
telecommunications products, Westell Inc. has established technology
relationships with leading telecommunication, software, computing and
semi-conductor companies such as Atlantech Technologies, ATML, DSC
Communications, GlobeSpan, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Motorola and
others.
Conference Plus Inc., is a multi-point telecommunications service bureau
specializing in audio teleconferencing, multi-point video conferencing,
broadcast fax, and multimedia teleconference services. Westell WorldWide
Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Westell Technologies,
provides engineering, installation and network management services to
leading network providers as well as turn-key equipment and service
solutions to enterprise customers and service providers.
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FlexCap2 and SuperVision are U.S. registered trademarks of Westell
Technologies, Inc.
For more information:
Mark L. Meudt
Westell, Inc.
630-375-4125
meudt@westell.com
Dawn Dalley
City Tel
250-627-0966
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