Handheld Computing: 3Com and Alcatel Agree to Wide-ranging Cooperation; Companies to Establish Open Industry Forum and Deliver Mobile Communications Products Within a Year - Company Business and Marketing

EDGE, On & About AT&T, March 22, 1999

3Com Corporation and Alcatel Wednesday announced an agreement to cooperate to promote the convergence of handheld computing and telecommunications devices. The cooperation between the two companies, both leaders in their respective markets, is expected to result in products available to customers this year. In addition, the two companies intend to cooperate through an open public forum to define a high level, standard application programming interface (API) between any handheld computing device and any mobile phone or telecommunication terminal. The forum will be open to all industry players, who are invited to contribute to and adopt the resultant API. The companies also intend to develop and market a software platform - based on existing server technology from both Alcatel and 3Com - for service providers and their customers. 3Com's existing web clipping server and Alcatel HomeTop software server products will deliver a continuous range of value-added services using wired and wireless technologies, both existing and future. Examples of the services such a solution might deliver include personal information management, unified voice and data messaging, personal telecom management and access to Web-based information via web clipping techniques. Services would be available to users via information terminals such as PCs, handheld computers, screenphones or mobile phones. Initially, 3Com's Palm Computing connected organizers, which account for 72 percent of the worldwide handheld companion market (IDC), will be combined with Alcatel's One Touch range of GSM mobile phones to create an integrated two-part communications device. Later, the companies plan to deliver optimized products which will share the ability to synchronize applications seamlessly across a single platform. This may result in the migration of GSM terminal functions to the organizer or, inversely, increased organizer functions on the terminal. Existing standards, such as Bluetooth, will be adhered to in the development of such solutions. Robin Abrams, president, Palm Computing and senior vice president, 3Com, said, "This announcement has far-reaching implications for customers and the technology industry in its widest sense. 3Com and Alcatel enjoy clear leadership in their respective markets: the combination of our expertise turns the vision of genuinely pervasive access to all types of information into a reality. The door is open for all players in the computing and communications sector to join with us to drive standards and develop real benefits for customers." "We strongly believe in the benefits of open standards," said Patrick Liot, president of Alcatel's professional and consumer division. "Contrary to other initiatives, which are closed or proprietary, this Alcatel/3Com open public forum will bring fast results to the whole of the industry." He concluded: "This opens the way to a completely new breed of compact, handheld, professional and consumer communications-related devices. It's the birth of a new product category. We are very excited to work with 3Com, which is enjoying unprecedented success in the PDA market." About the Palm Computing Platform The Palm Computing platform is the foundation for the market-leading 3Com Palm III and PalmPilot connected organizers and other handheld computing products from Palm Computing's strategic partners, all leaders in their respective markets. These include IBM, which sells the IBM WorkPad PC Companion into the enterprise market, Franklin Covey, which supplies Palm devices for both the consumer and enterprise markets based on its popular time and life management planning concepts, and Symbol Technologies, which develops and markets the SPT 1500 device with bar code scanning capabilities used in retail, transportation, parcel and postal delivery, manufacturing and health care. SUN Microsystems has licensed Palm Computing's HotSync technology, and HandSpring, Inc., has licensed the Palm Computing platform. With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people to information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. 3Com - More connected. For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the Palm Computing site at www.palm.com.

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 21.3 billion ($25.0 billion), Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. Alcatel has lately brought several significant innovations to the world of GSM mobile phones. Its One Touch EASY is the world's best-selling consumer mobile. Alcatel also introduced the first GSM with organiser functions the One Touch COM. It has produced the first picket-sized GSM with an Internet micro-browser in the Internet-enabled One Touch POCKET. The company is a member of the WAP Forum Board of Directors. It's "HomeTop Solutions" is an open standard software platform for accessing value-added services via new-generation Internet appliances, from mobile phones to PCs, Internet screenphones and TV set-top boxes.