Copper Mountain and 3Com Expand Strategic Alliance to Deliver Industry's Broadest Line of DSL Customer Premise Equipment - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Feb 28, 2000

Copper Mountain Networks, Inc., (Nasdaq:CMTN), the market-share leader in business Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) equipment, and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq:COMS) Tuesday announced that they have expanded their strategic alliance.

3Com, which began reselling Copper Mountain's CopperRocket 201 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) customer premise equipment (CPE) as the 3Com SDSL and ISDL Modem in early 1999, will distribute the entire CopperRocket product line under the 3Com brand, including integrated access devices (IADs) and inverse multiplexing (IMUX) devices. 3Com will resell the CopperRocket product line on an OEM basis. In addition, Copper Mountain and 3Com will collaborate on the design of future DSL CPE products.

"DSL is of great strategic importance to 3Com; we have seen explosive growth in the business DSL market and are committed to serving it," said Eric Benhamou, chairman and CEO of 3Com. "We're following through on our commitment by expanding our OEM relationship with Copper Mountain, the market leader in business DSL. 3Com has already had tremendous success selling the CopperRocket 201 and anticipates even greater success selling the full range of Copper Mountain CPE."

"By leveraging the well-known 3Com name and distribution channels, this agreement will accelerate the sale not only of our products but also of DSL lines and services," said Rick Gilbert, president and CEO of Copper Mountain. "3Com and Copper Mountain are making it easy for carriers and service providers to get a full complement of DSL CPE and premier customer support from a single source -- 3Com."

Rapid Market Growth Predicted

During the past year, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) have rapidly deployed DSL networks nationwide, and end-users are buying DSL CPE at an unprecedented rate. Cahners In-Stat Group predicts the total number of new subscribers in the North American DSL market will grow by 184 percent during 2000, from about 1 million to 2.87 million, and that new subscribers will number more than 12 million by 2003.

Worldwide, the group anticipates that the number of DSL devices sold will rise from about 2 million in 1999 to more than 18 million in 2003.

"During the past year, carriers have moved rapidly to bring DSL capability to central offices (COs) across the U.S.," said Shannon Pleasant, networking group senior analyst with Cahners InStat. "As a result, the market for business DSL is exploding. By expanding their relationship, Copper Mountain and 3Com are poised to take advantage of this rapidly expanding market opportunity."

"This agreement is a great move for 3Com and Copper Mountain," said Jerry Dinsmore, Jato's president and CEO. "It is good news for DSL service providers, first, because it asserts the strategic importance of DSL, and second, that we have increased choice in procuring a full complement of DSL CPE products and support for our customers."

A Range of DSL CPE

Copper Mountain's CopperRocket CPE products are ideal for small to medium businesses, remote offices, branch offices, teleworkers, and individuals seeking high-speed data and toll-quality voice connections for their home or office. These CPE products offer a range of DSL service options, transmission speeds, and distances to meet the price and performance needs of each subscriber.

Under the terms of its expanded agreement with Copper Mountain, 3Com will distribute the following members of the CPE product family:

-- The CopperRocket 201 SDSL CPE (3Com SDSL Modem), designed for use over standard telephone lines, provides always-on access at selectable speeds ranging from 128 kbps to 1.5 Mbps

-- The CopperRocket 201 SDSL IMUX DSU (3Com SDSL IMUX) creates a high-speed connection by using inverse multiplexing to bundle multiple telephone lines together. Speeds are selectable from 129 kbps to 3.0 Mbps

-- The CopperRocket 201 IDSL CPE (3Com IDSL Modem) is aimed at users served by ISDN-ready loops, providing data access from 64 kbps to 144 kbps

-- The CopperRocket 212 IDSL IMUX CPE (3Com IDSL IMUX) inverse multiplexes two ISDN-ready loops to achieve speeds between 64 kbps and 288 kbps

With over 300 million customer connections worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people and organizations to information and each other in more innovative, simple, and reliable ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers e-Networking solutions through information access products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses, consumers, carriers, and network service providers. For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com.

Copper Mountain Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:CMTN) develops and markets a comprehensive family of DSL solutions that enable high-speed internetworking over existing copper facilities. The company's mission is to enable carriers and other service providers to offer a full range of high-performance, cost-effective data and voice services over DSL that are easy to deploy, use, and manage.

Copper Mountain's CopperRocket CPE family addresses the bandwidth, reliability, ease-of-use, and cost concerns of remote offices and users. Its carrier-class CopperEdge DSL concentrators and CopperView network management solutions offer a robust and scalable platform for carriers and multi-tenant unit service providers to generate a high return on investment while satisfying the ever-increasing user demand for bandwidth.