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To: Sir Will Lancelot who wrote (3444)	4/29/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: David Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9236

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1998--3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS) and Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) today announced they have signed an agreement that will result in interoperable ADSL products and services. The interoperability agreement between 3Com, the worldwide leader in personal Internet access, and Alcatel, the leading supplier of ADSL Central Office equipment, signals an important step in the roll-out of broadband consumer services that will enable people to enjoy on-line information, entertainment and future services over high-speed connections ranging from 1.5 to 9 Mbps. 3Com's products will be interoperable with Alcatel's beginning late this summer. "BellSouth believes off-the-shelf CPE and interoperability are key factors for ADSL's mass market success," said John Cahill, BellSouth executive director, advanced networking, and co-chair of the Universal ADSL Working Group. "To that end, we encourage and support such agreements among key equipment suppliers in order to make ADSL services more accessible and affordable for our customers." ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) is a technology that lets people use standard telephone lines to connect to the Internet at speeds more than 50 times previously possible. The interoperability agreement between 3Com and Alcatel means that service providers can now offer to their end user consumers an even wider choice of popular ADSL equipment with full confidence of "end-to-end" interoperability. Business and residential consumers will know that these two leading vendors are working together to deliver the best possible Internet experience. 3Com is the world leader in consumer modems and ships more than 1,000,000 modems a month. 3Com has made the online world accessible to more people than any other company through easy-to-use, high-speed, high-quality ADSL, analog, ISDN and cable modems. This breadth of products offers 3Com consumer and business customers a choice in access technologies based on their specific application and access-speed requirements and service availability. This year, 3Com won its fourth Consecutive "Best Vendor" award at RetailVision Spring '98. The award recognizes 3Com's retail program, from product quality to vendor support, and is voted on by more than 200 of the nation?s top computer and software retail executives. Alcatel has a leading position for the supply of ADSL Central Office Equipment on the world market with central office and related infrastructure installed at numerous carriers worldwide. 3Com and Alcatel will work together to ensure their current and future ADSL products work together based on the ANS1 T1.413 Issue 2 standard and, later this year, on the ITU G.dmt full rate ADSL standard, as well as additional standards as they evolve. 3Com and Alcatel will commit combined resources dedicated to testing the compatibility between Alcatel's ADSL DSLAM products and 3Com's customer premise equipment, including testing for basic interoperability, modem communication protocols, performance and applications. "Interoperability in the ADSL market is critical in ensuring that customers are able to buy the best equipment in the channel without reservation or concern about incompatibility," said 3Com's Senior Vice President of New Business Initiatives, Rick Edson. "Standardized, interoperable ADSL is key to the continued growth of the ADSL market. Our leadership position in the modem and remote access markets makes 3Com best suited to lead standards efforts through its instrumental role in the industry." "Customers around the world of Alcatel's world-leading 1000 ADSL technology will welcome this announcement because it now gives them the option of purchasing ADSL modems from 3Com," said Martin dePrycker, vice president and general manager, Internet Access & ADSL products for Alcatel. "This means more consumers will have fully standards-compliant and interoperable ADSL products and is truly an important milestone in achieving ubiquitous broadband services and delivering on the promise of ADSL." "Interoperability is critical to moving ADSL from an early adopter market to a mature, commercialized market," said John Hunter, an analyst with TeleChoice, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm. "Interoperable DSL solutions are important not only for service providers, but also for end customers in streamlining CPE distribution and support." Building on Proven ADSL Solutions 3Com and Alcatel have offered ADSL products since mid-1997. With 3Com's leadership in modem/CPE technology and Alcatel's strong incumbent position in the ADSL Digital Subscriber Loop Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) market, the two companies are ideally suited to drive the market via interoperable solutions. The Alcatel "1000 ADSL" product family, compatible with all DMT standard-compliant (T1.413) equipment, features full-rate, "lite" and "splitterless" products. Alcatel's ADSL products are based on its own ADSL chipset, which is being made available for licensing and sale to companies in order to speed up the availability of ADSL products. This development helps ensure mass-market availability of high-speed Internet access based on a single, standardized ADSL technology. Please visit www.alcatel.com to learn more about Alcatel's end-to-end Internet and broadband solutions.