Westell Offers Interoperable DSL Solutions With Lucent Technologies - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Dec 13, 1999

Westell Technologies, Inc., through its Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) Business Unit, announced Monday that it has joined Lucent Technologies' (LU) "Wired for DSL" interoperability program to further promote DSL deployments and end-to-end solutions. As part of the program, Westell's WireSpeed modems and DSL routers have been tested and certified for compatibility with Lucent's new Stinger DSL access concentrator.

Westell's WireSpeed products are external modems that share an existing office or home phone line to provide reliable, high-speed, Internet connection at downstream data rates of up to 8 Mbps and upstream data rates of up to 800 Kbps. WireSpeed products are "plug and play" and enable multiple users to share a single Internet connection as well as dynamically select between multiple service providers or corporate LANs. WireSpeed modems are available today at Westell's on-line store at www.dsl-modems.com.

Under its "Wired for DSL" interoperability program, Lucent is partnering with leading vendors of DSL equipment to provide an end-to-end, multivendor solution to its service provider customers. Lucent comprehensively tests and certifies third-party products to deliver more flexible and reliable DSL networks to its customers.

"We believe that participation in Lucent's 'Wired for DSL' program will further promote broad based, compatible, carrier-class DSL solutions to the market," stated Bill Noll, Westell Chief Technology Officer. "Westell's WireSpeed modems are currently being deployed by a number of carriers and ISP's around the country and we are excited to become part of a solution involving the Stinger platform."

"We are happy to add Westell and its WireSpeed modems to our Wired for DSL interoperability program," said Ashok Dhawan, general manager of Lucent Technologies' high-speed access products. "Carriers who deploy the Stinger platform will be able to utilize Westell's DSL product line to deliver high- speed services as part of a complete, multivendor solution."

Westell Inc.'s CPE business unit provides value-added end-points to the broadband network through multiple channels including through carriers, Internet Service Providers and e-commerce.

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 an Applications Service Provider managing and hosting audio, video, IP conferencing and support services. Additional information can be obtained by visiting Westell's Web site at www.westell.com.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, NJ, USA, designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. More information about Lucent Technologies is available on the company's Web site at: http://www.lucent.com.