Symmetricom Breaks Last Mile Bottleneck for Global Businesses Through New Business DSL Products

Business Wire, Oct 29, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001

Symmetricom's New GoWide Bonded DSL Products Represent First End-to-End G.SHDSL Enterprise Solutions Enabling Ethernet Speeds Over

Copper Telephone Lines

Symmetricom(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:SYMM) today announced two new members of the company's GoWide business G.shdsl product family capable of delivering higher bandwidth at a reduced cost to businesses and service providers over the traditional copper telephone infrastructure. The new GoWide Enterprise 15 Mbps and GoWide 9.2 Mbps provide higher bandwidth over copper as an alternative to the limited bandwidth of T1/E1 lines and limited availability and high cost of fiber-optic access.

A recent white paper by Telechoice, a leading telecommunications research firm, noted that the need for increased bandwidth for businesses has steadily grown, while the access options available for securing that much needed bandwidth have remained limited. The current options, either T1/E1 access at 1.5 or 2.3 Mbps speeds, and fiber access at 45 Mbps, present no alternatives for incremental bandwidth increases. The difference between these two options is the "T-Chasm" -- that empty space both in terms of bandwidth options and price between T1 and T3. Symmetricom's GoWide family bridges the T-Chasm with the industry's first full line of G.shdsl access products, delivering 2.3 to 15 Mbps of bandwidth over the copper telephone infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of fiber-optic access.

"Our research shows that the T-Chasm presents a major challenge for businesses that need greater than T1/E1 speeds but are constrained by the costs of alternative solutions," said Patrick Hurley, DSL analyst at TeleChoice and author of the white paper. "There is a significant opportunity in the market for companies such as Symmetricom who are building next generation broadband products using the internationally approved G.shdsl standard as a means of addressing this dilemma for global businesses and service providers."

GoWide: Business Broadband for Tomorrow's Needs

GoWide Enterprise is a new generation Integrated Access Device (IAD) that combines one to eight individual copper phone lines to create a single circuit with data rates up to 15 Mbps. Businesses can leverage GoWide Enterprise to create 15 Mbps Wide Area Network connections over copper lines, connecting geographically dispersed campuses or operating facilities. Using GoWide, service providers can lease copper phone lines for as little as $15 a month, as opposed to leasing T1 lines, to deliver Ethernet over copper services to business customers.

"Today's broadband options for business cost too much and deliver too little bandwidth, and Symmetricom is changing that through our GoWide product family," said Don Skipwith, vice president business development at Symmetricom. "With these new products, we are rounding out a full suite of G.shdsl solutions delivering broadband over copper that enables the use of next-generation applications and provides incremental steps between T1/E1 access and fiber access."

GoWide 9.2 Mbps is a G.shdsl modem that enables businesses to have data access at speeds previously reserved for fiber. GoWide 9.2 Mbps combines G.shdsl transport with Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA) to deliver end-to-end bandwidth of 9.2 Mbps via a 10Base-T Ethernet TCP/IP port. GoWide also offers the industry's longest reach with international compatibility allowing common transport of North American T1 circuits and European E1 circuits. Using GoWide, businesses can now access the Internet or extend their VPN at near Ethernet speeds helping to solve the "Last Mile" barrier that handicaps many businesses that do not have fiber access.

The Importance Of G.SHDSL

G.shdsl is the new generation of DSL approved by the ITU (an international standards body) that delivers higher bandwidth at greater distances and is far less expensive to deploy and maintain than the current forms of DSL used for business services. G.shdsl has very low noise characteristics and a very low probability of interfering with other services in adjacent copper pairs. Current T1/E1 services require the use of two copper pairs (four wires) as opposed to G.shdsl which only requires one copper pair, meaning carriers can maximize the revenue potential of their existing copper infrastructure. Unlike proprietary SDSL, G.shdsl is already supported by major DSLAM, chipset and other infrastructure vendors, meaning the DSLAMs already in place for ADSL residential services represent a ready-made infrastructure for delivering G.shdsl-based business services with simple line card upgrades.

About Symmetricom, Inc.

Symmetricom Inc. (Nasdaq:SYMM) makes wireline and wireless communication possible for businesses and consumers, improving global network traffic and increasing the value of the copper telephone wire infrastructure. The company's intelligent synchronization products are essential for the transmission of voice, data and video over any network, and the company's broadband products extend the reach and bandwidth of broadband services from the Internet backbone over the "last mile." Symmetricom helps maximize the deliverable bandwidth over the copper telephone wire infrastructure, eliminating the distance barriers for the consumer market and the cost barriers in the business market for value-added broadband services. Symmetricom's customers include the world's largest carriers and service providers. The Company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information visit www.symmetricom.com.