Newbridge Networks and Toshiba Sign Five-Year Distribution Agreement for Broadband Wireless - Newbridge Networks' local multipoint distribution service network equipment - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Oct 4, 1999

Newbridge Networks has announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Toshiba Corporation for the distribution of Newbridge local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) network equipment in Japan. The estimated value of the agreement is $350 million over the next five years. The agreement also includes cooperation in the areas of joint product development and manufacturing.

"Newbridge has pioneered the broadband wireless industry with first-to-market high speed time division multiple access (TDMA) technology that enables service providers to dynamically share bandwidth among a large number of users," said Dr. Kenzo Kobayashi, senior manager Multimedia Wireless Access Systems Engineering Department, Toshiba Telecommunications Systems. "The deregulation of the Japanese telecommunications market provides fertile ground for the rapid deployment of broadband wireless as a cost effective broadband access technology."

The Newbridge LMDS broadband wireless access solution enables service providers to enter the telecommunications market quickly and cost effectively with a broad portfolio of premium quality services for business and residential customers. LMDS, a high capacity broadband wireless system operating in the 28 Ghz spectrum, delivers data, Internet, voice, video and multimedia services using a point-to-multipoint distribution system.

Toshiba selected the Newbridge solution based on its versatility, high reliability and scalability, and cost effectiveness. The Newbridge solution comprises both base station and customer premise equipment. A base station, consisting of the industry leading MainStreetXpress 36170 Multiservices Switch - the largest selling ATM switch in the industry - and point-to-multipoint transmitters and receivers, is the central location that collects all traffic to and from customers within a given wireless coverage area and is the linking point between the customer and the network backbone. Customer premise equipment includes transceivers and network interface units (NIUs), which support a full range of services. The MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager manages both the wireless and wireline portions of the network, providing a full range of billing, statistics and maintenance support.

"The signing of this distribution and cooperative agreement with Toshiba is further evidence of our broadband wireless solution's attractiveness as a cost-effective solution to deploy a broad portfolio of premium quality services for business and residential customers," said Roger Fung, executive vice president, Asia Pacific Region, Newbridge Networks. "Our collaborative development efforts with leading-edge broadband wireless customers have resulted in an industry-leading solution which is being successfully deployed in carrier networks throughout South America, Asia, Europe and the United States."

A pioneer in the LMDS market, the Newbridge broadband wireless solution has been selected for deployment by 19 LMDS customers in the United States, Canada, South America, Asia and Europe, with a further 14 customers currently conducting field trials of the technology. Newbridge is also actively engaged in discussions with customers that represent 63 additional network deployments.

Toshiba Corporation is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products and power systems. The company's integration of these wide-ranging capabilities assures its position as an innovator in multimedia components, products and systems. Toshiba has 188,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of over US$ 40 billion.Toshiba's web site is at www.toshiba.co.jp.