To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (11774 ) 1/19/1998 9:13:00 AM From: David Lawrence Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 22053
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1998-- Increasing Number of ISPs Standardize on Total Control Remote Access Concentrator According to all three recent reports on the access concentrator market, 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ:COMS) gained a commanding lead over the competition in market share by revenue, the company announced today. For the period of Q3-1997, reports by the Dell'Oro Group, Dataquest and In-Stat show 3Com widening its leading position by as much as 15 percentage points over both Ascend Communications and Cisco Systems. The ease of upgrading 3Com's Total Control(TM) remote access concentrator to x2(TM) technology, and the scalability and performance of the platform are important factors in this growth. In its analysis published Nov. 18, 1997, Dell'Oro Group, an industry research firm based in Portola Valley, Calif., reported that 3Com grew its lead to 40 percent of revenue market share over second place Ascend's 29 percent and Cisco's 14.9 percent in the access concentrator category. In Dataquest's access concentrator report published Nov. 20, 1997, the San Jose-based industry research firm listed 3Com with 43.8 percent of end-user revenue market share compared to Ascend's 28.5 percent and Cisco's 15.5 percent. In its Nov. 20 report, In-Stat, an industry research firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz., reported 3Com with a 38.6 percent revenue market share in the access concentrator category while Ascend had 32 percent and Cisco 17.4 percent. Among the leading factors in this robust growth is the software upgradability of 3Com's Total Control remote access concentrators to x2 technology. Using this technology, 3Com was the first company to provide a workable end-to-end 56 Kbps(1) technology solution in March 1997. This has provided significant benefit to end users in the form of much faster access to the Internet or corporate intranets. Additionally, with the introduction of the HiPer(TM) access system, the Total Control platform offers the highest level of scalability and performance in the marketplace. It is also ideal as a multi-service access device with inherent capability to provide integrated support for voice, data, video and fax. Based on these factors, nine of the 10 largest ISPs in the world have standardized on the Total Control platform. "The easy migration path of the Total Control system to new technologies has played a key role in our deployment of the platform," said Neil van Wouw, vice president--technology, Global OnLine Japan. "Our investment is protected, and we upgraded our systems to new services like x2 technology without having to change hardware as we would have to with competitive product offerings." "Virgin Net prides itself on its architecture and commitment to supporting open technology standards where they exist," said Ivan Izikowitz, technical director for this London-based ISP. "The software upgradability of the Total Control solution ensures that when the 56 Kbps standardization is finalized, we will be able to adopt the ITU standard painlessly." "The ability to provide multiple services from a single platform and the software upgradability were important factors in our selection of the Total Control remote access concentrator," said Tom Adamek, president of Urbana, Illinois-based Planet Digital Network Technologies, an Internet communications service provider. "The flexible bandwidth of the Total Control system gives users a new medium for Internet, local and long distance telephone service, voice, data and video applications from a single provider, reducing overall costs." "Southern New England Telephone (SNET) selected the Total Control remote access concentrator because of its software-based architecture, which gave us the ability to deploy new modem technologies quickly," said Dave McPhail, director of SNET On-Line Services. "With the Total Control platform, we've been able to offer our customers 56 Kbps technology with a clear upgrade path to the standard." The Total Control remote access concentrator is designed for carriers, ISPs and corporate enterprises that need to support a wide range of remote users or Internet subscribers. With its HiPer DSP technology, the Total Control system can terminate 336 (420 E1) remote sessions in less than nine inches of rackmount height, the highest port density in the smallest amount of space. The Total Control platform is the only remote access concentrator that was originally designed with a software-upgradable architecture.