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Tuesday April 27, 8:15 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Westell Technologies, Inc.
Westell and AudioCodes Awarded BIRD Foundation Funding For Communications Portal(TM) Development
Companies Receive Funding for New Integrated Access Device
AURORA, Ill., TEL AVIV, Israel and YAHUD, Israel, April 27
/PRNewswire/ -- Westell Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: WSTL - news) and AudioCodes Ltd.
announced today that they have been awarded funding from the BIRD Foundation
for the development of a new integrated access device (IAD) called the
Communications Portal(TM).
The BIRD Foundation is a joint United States and Israel government foundation established to support and promote select high-tech R&D ventures that will mutually benefit the US and Israel. The BIRD foundation has played a key role in stimulating the high tech industry in Israel by advancing mutually beneficial relationships between U.S. and Israeli high tech firms.
With a comprehensive and competitive application and review process, the BIRD foundation has funded over 550 projects, with approximately 40 new projects approved each year. ''We are confident that high synergy, technical expertise and marketing capabilities of the Westell-AudioCodes partnership, will result in another successful BIRD supported venture,'' says Dov Hershberg, BIRD's Executive Director.
Westell and AudioCodes are collaborating to develop an IAD for small business sites, that will offer high quality voice, fax and data services over a single DSL line. The Communications Portal(TM) provides a solution for carriers to address end-user bandwidth growth while picking up their voice business as well. ''The Communications Portal(TM) enables carriers to offer multiple services over an unbundled loop. We believe this will result in added revenue and margin per access link,'' said Ben Rabinowitz, Westell Senior Product Manager. ''This solution can significantly improve ILEC economics and can potentially enable CLECs to profitably address the needs of the under-served small office and branch office sites.''
The Westell-AudioCodes solution will also support legacy networks and enable migration to NextGen networks. Product availability is expected to be in the third quarter of 1999.
''The Communications Portal(TM) IAD will give Westell another platform of Central Office-interoperable customer premise equipment that integrates the power of PPP and VOIP/ATM functionality, while providing better than ADPCM quality to the end-user,'' stated Marc Zionts, CEO of Westell. ''The funding we have been awarded by the BIRD Foundation will allow us to accelerate our time to market, by capitalizing on the synergies that exist between AudioCodes and Westell.''
''The coupling of toll quality Voice over Packet Technology with high speed data represents a major achievement. This effort will further establish converged voice and data networks as the next generation technology for the business communications market,'' said AudioCodes CEO, Shabtai Adlersberg. ''AudioCodes is proud to be a partner with the BIRD Foundation and looks forward to co-operating with Westell to establish the Communications Portal(TM) as the pre-eminent integrated access device in the market.''
Funding for the Communications Portal IAD was awarded to Westell following a review by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and by the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel's Ministry of Trade and Industry (OCS).
BIRD's comprehensive application and review processes have resulted in 21 years of successful bi-national partnerships. Grants totaling more than $160 million have generated nearly $3 billion in cumulative direct sales of products developed by BIRD supported projects. BIRD's headquarters are in Tel Aviv, Israel, with U.S. offices in Santa Clara (CA) and Boston (MA). Additional information on BIRD's activities can be found at birdf.com.
AudioCodes is a world class provider of IP Telephony and voice over ATM networks technology. AudioCodes designs, develops and markets a full line of high performance enabling technologies and products for IP Telephony. AudioCodes is a voice compression technology leader and is the originator of the ITU G.723.1 standard, which is specified for use in the emerging market of IP Telephony. Its full line of products are leading solutions for telecom and datacom manufacturers including Adtran, Ascend, Cisco, Clarent, Hypercom and VocalTec. Established in 1993, the company has its headquarters and R&D design center in Yehud, Israel, with U.S. sales and marketing based in Santa Jose, California. AudioCodes is privately held by its founders and venture investment funds. For more information on AudioCodes, please visit the company website at audiocodes.com.
Westell Technologies, Inc, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is a holding company for Westell, Inc. and Conference Plus, Inc. Westell, Inc. manufactures and licenses DSL systems and value added CPE, and manufactures telecommunications access products. Conference Plus, Inc. is a multi-point telecommunications service bureau specializing in audio teleconferencing, multi-point video conferencing, broadcast fax, and IP multimedia conferencing services. Additional information can be obtained by visiting Westell's Web site at westell.com.
''Safe Harbor'' statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Certain statements contained herein including, without limitation, significantly improve ILEC economics and can potentially enable CLECs to profitably address the needs of the under-served small office and branch office sites, another successful BIRD supported venture, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to, product demand and market acceptance risks (including the future commercial acceptance of Westell's ADSL systems by telephone companies and other customers), the impact of competitive products and technologies (such as cable modems and fiber optic cable), competitive pricing pressures, product development, excess and obsolete inventory due to new product development, commercialization and technological delays or difficulties (including delays or difficulties in developing, producing, testing and selling new products and technologies, such as ADSL systems), the effect of Westell's accounting policies, the effect of economic conditions and trade, legal, social, and economic risks (such as import, licensing and trade restrictions) and other risks more fully described in Westell's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998 under the section ''Risk Factors.'' Westell undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
SOURCE: Westell Technologies, Inc.
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