3Com and Symbol Announce Plans to Jointly Develop Wireless LAN Telephony Solutions - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, March 27, 2000

3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS) and Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL) Tuesday announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding detailing plans to integrate 3Com's NBX 100 Communications System with Symbol's NetVision family of wireless mobile communications devices. 3Com will provide multi-line business communications capabilities to Symbol's 802.11 hand-held devices to bring full multimedia capabilities to business phones. The joint development effort will extend Symbol's wireless technology to a variety of voice, video and data communications devices from 3Com, including the NBX 100 Communications System business phones to bring advanced mobility to business environments.

"This relationship is another step in 3Com's strategy to deliver one network infrastructure for voice, video and data and signals the company's entry into the explosive retail convergence market," said Ed Wadbrook, director of business strategies, Voice Solutions Group, 3Com Corporation. "3Com has identified the enormous opportunity in the fast-growing wireless access device market and we are pleased to team with a technology & market leader like Symbol. Together, we will bring best-of-breed wireless multimedia devices to enterprise customers."

"Symbol and 3Com are committed to meeting the customer needs for mobility and seamless voice and data connectivity in the explosive markets of healthcare, e-commerce, education, retail, transportation & logistics," said Richard Bravman, senior vice president and general manager, wireless systems division, Symbol Technologies. "Through this relationship, we are able to take 3Com's best-in-class LAN telephony solution and integrate it with our NetVision family of wireless phones to provide our customers with complete access to full business capabilities for mission-critical applications, regardless of their location within the enterprise."

Fully Integrated, Standards-Based Wireless Capabilities for Business Environments 3Com and Symbol will give enterprise customers wireless Ethernet phones that are fully integrated with features and functions that users expect at the desktop. From any location within a corporate site, Symbol's wireless VoIP phones will have the same features, functionality and properties as that of the business phone that sits on the desk.

3Com and Symbol support IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.3 in its product offerings, allowing organizations to extend existing infrastructures to support next-generation voice, video and data applications. The phones and applications - wired or wireless - will operate over one network to offer a scalable infrastructure that will handle voice and data communications as organizations move to full multi-media environments.

Availability Jointly developed 3Com and Symbol solutions are expected to become available to customers in the second half of 2000. The companies will work together on joint marketing and sales programs, as well as training materials and consultant programs to support customers.

Symbol Technologies, Inc., winner of this year's National Medal of Technology, is a global leader in wireless and Internet based mobile data management systems and services. Symbol provides its customers unique value with innovative solutions utilizing application-specific information appliances, data and voice wireless networks, and bar code and data capture scanning.

Symbol and its global network of business partners provide wireless LAN and WAN mobility solutions from the enterprise to e-commerce for industries including retail, transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, healthcare, hospitality and education. Symbol's broad range of information appliances is in use by business and consumers from the factory, to the office and in the home. Information is available from Symbol http://www.symbol.com and 800/722-6234.

With more than 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 web-enabled solutions to consumers, small- to medium-sized business locations and network service providers. FMI: www.3com.com.