MISSISSAUGA, Ont.—January 12, 2001—Building on its market-leading IP PBX heritage, 3Com Canada today announced the new 3Com® SuperStack® 3 NBX® Networked Telephony Solution. By replacing traditional PBX systems, 3Com is meeting customers' business requirements for increased flexibility and cost savings with a reliable system that is simpler to use and maintain than any other system on the market. 3Com's newest addition to the NBX 25 and NBX 100 product line expands to 600 users, helping businesses worldwide manage their operations more efficiently, improve customer relations, economize on costs and enhance overall productivity.

"Independent market data indicates that customers are moving away from legacy PBX systems and investing in open, IP-based solutions. Sales of traditional voice systems are down considerably from previous years, while 3Com's IP PBX sales continue to grow rapidly," said Vishnu Singh, network telephony specialist, 3Com Canada. "With the addition of the SuperStack 3 NBX solution to our current NBX 25 and NBX 100 products, 3Com now addresses the needs of a broader base of customers, accelerating the transition to IP PBX solutions."

According to Synergy Research, the IP PBX market is expected to grow from $213 million during 2000 to $3.9 billion in revenue with over 19 million lines shipped in 2005. By 2005, Synergy estimates that IP PBX systems will represent nearly 20% of all PBX sales.

Meeting Customer Needs For Open Architectures
The SuperStack 3 NBX solution is part of 3Com's family of IP PBX products designed to replace traditional business phone systems while leveraging industry-standard data networks. 3Com Networked Telephony Solutions use an organization's "data" network to gain access to seamless multi-site communications, unified messaging, computer telephony integration, contact center, browser-based administration and day-to-day business telephony features. 3Com's open architecture gives customers more effective access to the business tools and applications they need to prosper in today's competitive climate.

Enhanced Scalability Serves Larger, Demanding Organizations
The SuperStack 3 NBX solution includes an enhanced call processor and a newly designed gateway at its core. The solution now delivers 10/100 business telephones providing improved displays and easier connections. The phones are also available with a built-in infrared port, as well as software that integrates Palm computing applications. 3Com's NBX dialing application for Palm computing devices is shipped with every system. As part of the 3Com Networked Telephony Solutions product family, the SuperStack 3 NBX solution addresses the communication needs of larger organizations by giving customers the ability to network multiple locations with up to 600 users per site.

"The SuperStack 3 NBX solution is designed to solve a wide range of business communication problems that customers face in today's global economy," said Nick Tidd, president and country manager 3Com Canada. "We're expanding our proven, reliable NBX platform to offer customers a solution that will scale easily as the organization grows and help our customers be more efficient and productive."

Proven Availability
The foundation of reliability for the SuperStack 3 NBX solution is its real-time embedded operating system, Wind River System's VxWorks®, currently used with all 3Com Networked Telephony Solutions. In continuing to use this operating system, 3Com reinforces its commitment to meeting the requirements of the mission-critical portion of its customers' businesses. The SuperStack3 NBX solution also includes resilient 10/100 uplink ports, redundant power supplies and mirrored hard drives to ensure that the system is always up and running.

Extensive Applications Support Productivity
With the SuperStack 3 NBX solution, 3Com delivers the industry's most affordable, built-in application package that helps improve productivity and system utilization. New with the SuperStack 3 NBX solution is Palm O/S dialing support, PC-based attendant software that enables call handling from any receptionist's desktop, increased voice mail storage and enhancements to NBX ConneXtions H.323 solution. With 72 built-in voice mail ports, 3Com has the capacity to meet the storage needs of larger enterprises.

"With the SuperStack 3 NBX solution, an unprecedented number of productivity-enhancing features and applications are built-in, allowing us to realize superior functionality at a much lower total cost of ownership," said Stephen Douglas, MIS, ChannelWave Software, Inc.

3Com Delivers Simple Administration and Use
Enhancements to the SuperStack 3 NBX system management utilities include 3Com Network Supervisor and NBX NetSet™ administrator, and improve the flexibility of the system, making it the easiest to use, easiest to own, and the most simple to maintain. The browser-based administrative tools decrease staff requirements needed to run the system, resulting in a dramatic reduction of maintenance and administrative costs. As a result, the solution provides converged voice and data services with a single support staff and skill set.

With its administrative tool, NBX NetSet™, the SuperStack 3 NBX solution allows for self-directed adds, moves and changes. The system is also designed for the greatest user flexibility with maximum productive uptime during installation or upgrades.

The SuperStack 3 NBX is a radically simple, global solution. The solution includes nine built-in, easy-to-deploy localized language options. End-users simply access a drop menu to select the language of choice, yielding a cost-effective, easy-to-maintain multi-national solution.

3Com Provides Investment Assurance
Built on an open architecture, the 3Com SuperStack 3 NBX solution operates over standards-based Ethernet networks. Regardless of the customer's existing LAN environment, the SuperStack 3 NBX solution helps reduce integration risks and costs. As a result, an investment or upgrade in network infrastructure may now benefit both a customer's voice and data services.

Pricing and Availability
Expected to be available in late March 2001, the SuperStack 3 NBX Networked Telephony Solution is priced based on specific configuration. A 200-station system with unified messaging and 200 10/100 phones will have the price of CDN $210,000, a cost of only $350 per user.

Other 3Com Networked Telephony Solutions are available worldwide through 3Com Voice Authorized Partners. For more information, call 1-800-NET-3COM.

About 3Com
3Com simplifies how people connect to information and services through easy-to-use, connectivity products and solutions for consumers and commercial organizations. The company also provides access infrastructures and IP services platforms for network service providers. For further information, visit ca.3com.com.