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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sawtooth who wrote (31224)	5/25/1999 9:34:00 AM
From: Dolfan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

I receive a magazine called soundingboardmag.com. Tracking the movement of Voice, Fax, and Video onto packet Networks. I will be pasting a couple articles that mention 3COM in them. 3Com Looks to Voice over IP Transport, Mediation By Paula Bernier3Com Corp. (www.3com.com) is expanding its Internet protocol (IP) telephony strategy to allow its boxes to work in tandem with Class 4 circuit switches. Also at the Voice on the Net (VON) conference, the company announced it is building a device to mediate between all the various call control standards. According to Houman Modarres, director of product management for Internet Telephony Carrier Systems, 3Com divides its voice over IP (VoIP) market into two pieces--retail and transparent trunking solutions. The initial interest in VoIP has been in retail services such as prepaid calling. 3Com thinks that is viable, but is not likely to be a major source of revenue for the carrier market, Modarres says. One reason is because clearinghouses have not evolved to be widely used yet, so IP telephony service providers only can offer the service to and from a limited number of locations. However, he says, any provider offering long distance can push a 3Com IP telephony gateway against its Class 4 long distance switch, allowing it to eliminate its inner ring of tandem switches, offer low-cost long distance service and, most importantly, provide a service for which customers don't have to change their calling behavior (vs. a prepaid calling card service in which they'd have to dial a 1-800 number and personal identification number before making a call). And that, Modarres says, allows carriers to use existing revenue to pay for next-generation infrastructure. In other 3Com news, the company is building a mediation device to allow gateways using H.323, media gateway control protocol (MGCP), session initiation protocol (SIP) and/or any other popular call control option that comes along to interoperate. Modarres declined to provide a delivery date for the mediator.

To: Sawtooth who wrote (31224)	5/25/1999 9:41:00 AM
From: Dolfan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

These companies are budnling the FAX software with every cable Modem 3COM ships. @Home, .comfax Team To Offer Internet Faxing By Brandy Pfalmer High-speed cable modem company @Home Networks (www.home.net) is bringing Internet protocol (IP) fax service to the broad residential market.The company recently struck a deal with IP fax company .comfax Inc. (www.comfax.com). The agreement enables subscribers of @Home service to use .comfax's technology for online faxing through a free trial subscription, which provides the user with 10 free minutes of faxing any-where inside the continental United States. "When @Home goes to customers and offers them high-speed Internet access they pay around $40 a month, [and] they get a hundred times the speed," says Ben Feder, chairman and CEO of .comfax. "A lot of consumers have a second telephone line for accessing the Internet, and they can throw that away [because of the high-speed access]. "We believe one in five of those customers say, 'I also use that second line for my fax machine.' Now we have a solution for that fax machine, and we save consumers $25 to $35 a month when they get access to the Internet on cable modems," he says. Not only are customers able to reduce costs by eliminating phone lines, users are able to fax anywhere in the United States at 10 cents per minute. Also, .comfax offers users fax broadcast, fax tracking and fax mailbox capabilities. .comfax is hitting a portion of the market, the residential one, that is new to alternative faxing methods. "As far as I know, we are the first [in the residential market with this type of service]," Feder explains. "This is our second play in that market; we are also bundled in every cable modem that 3Com [Corp. (www.3com.com)] sells in retail." Feder also believes that the play in the residential market is a complement to the company's push with the corporate one.

To: Sawtooth who wrote (31224)	5/25/1999 10:55:00 AM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

Hand-Held Computer Making Splash Associated Press - May 25, 1999 SAN JOSE, Calif., (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Craig Schmidt uses his hand-held Palm computer at work, at home, even on the golf course. ''I don't sleep with my Palm Pilot and I usually don't do anything with it when I'm eating a meal. But aside from those times, I keep my Palm Pilot with me pretty much all the time, seven days a week,'' said Schmidt, a Cameron Park, Calif.-businessman who wrote software to score golf games and now sells it through his company called IntelliGolf. Schmidt is one of thousands of people around the world who have incorporated hand-held computers into their lives in recent years as the technology has improved. On Monday, 3Com Corp. introduced its latest hand-held computer that does even more: The Palm VII allows users to go onto the Internet without being plugged into a wall. The cost of the device is high and its services will initially be limited. Nonetheless, some analysts said the devices should be well received by consumers, who have already been embracing products like it that used to be just for techies. ''In 1998, the hand-held computer market crossed the important billion-dollar sales threshold and is well on the way to reaching critical mass,'' said Scott Miller, principal analyst for the research firm Dataquest. Worldwide sales of hand-held computers are expected to exceed 5.7 million units in 1999, a 47 percent increase over 1998, according to Dataquest. The market is projected to grow more than 30 percent through 2003, when sales are expected to reach 21 million. Hand-held computers initially allowed users just to keep schedules and take notes. The small boxes could, in turn, be plugged into desktop computers to synchronize information. The device has been improving during the past few years. While other attempts have been made to provide wireless Internet access, 3Com's is notable because the Palm organizer is already highly popular. However, the Palm VII will cost $599, twice the price of the previous model. In addition, users must sign up for Palm's Internet service provider Palm.net, which will cost them at least $10 a month. Heavy users of the service will pay $100 a month or more. Initially it will be available for sale only in the New York metropolitan area, but the company plans to offer it nationally later this year. Users will be able to send and receive e-mail, look up stock prices, sports scores or horoscopes, get news or driving directions -- among other services. That sounds like a lot, but there are some drawbacks. The e-mails must be short and the e-mail address is different from the user's regular e-mail. The Palm VII reformats Web pages to fit the smaller screen using a technology known as Web clipping that limits the content somewhat. Still, Web sites as diverse as ESPN.com, Moviefone.com, United Parcel Service and the online brokerage ETrade Group Inc. have signed on to provide content to the new Palm organizers. One month ago, Troy Henley, a technology manager at a Columbus, Ohio, law firm, came to work with a couple of hand-held Palm computers, hoping to convince the lawyers that the little gadgets could make them more efficient. Now, just four weeks later, all nine attorneys in the personal injury practice have pitched their paper calendars and are showing up in court, on the golf course and at meetings with their computers in hand. ''It's funny. Once anybody saw it working they had to have one,'' said Henley. ''They don't do everything, but they do a lot.'' Copyright 1999 Associated Press, All rights reserved. o~~~ O