Ericsson and Symbol Technologies announce partnership

Ericsson and Symbol Technologies announce partnership to sell converged wireless data and telecom solutions for enterprise and vertical market applications Ericsson Enterprise Solutions and Symbol Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: SBL) today announced a co-marketing and technology-sharing agreement to deliver wireless LAN-based telephony and data solutions from a single networking platform to enterprise and vertical markets. The Ericsson/Symbol partnership targets the emerging market for on-site mobility where communication services and applications are offered over a single converged network infrastructure, based on Internet protocol (IP) technology, for both fixed and mobile enterprise users. The partnership enables the two companies to combine expertise in technology and services to deliver a streamlined networking environment combining voice and data on a single infrastructure to its customers, enterprise-wide, from the office to remote operations, such as manufacturing facilities, logistics centers, and retail outlets. "This partnership brings together the potent combination of Ericsson's on- site mobility, data networking and IP telephony solutions with Symbol's innovations in industry specific systems, wireless local area networks and standards-compliant voice-over-IP client devices. Our mutual customers will benefit from easy access to breakthrough technologies from leaders in their respective fields," said Richard Bravman, senior vice president, wireless systems, Symbol Technologies. The agreement covers the joint marketing and distribution of each other's products, which enables each company to offer enterprises a complete integrated solution for IP telephony, data collection, transfer, and management. Ericsson will supply its Webswitch IP-PBX offerings (products from the recent Touchwave acquisition), computer telephony servers, and Network Access product lines to Symbol Technologies. Symbol will supply its NetVision voice-over-IP phones, mobile computers and Spectrum24® wireless local area network access points to Ericsson. "Ericsson and Symbol will bring a family of products and a partnership distribution channel that will allow corporate management to view data and telephony as a common resource," said Haijo Pietersma, executive vice president enterprise solutions, Ericsson. "These efforts will allow enhanced application integration, improved resource utilization, reduced operations expense while ensuring that customers enjoy enhanced productivity, profitability and competitive market position." In addition, Ericsson and Symbol will share technologies, jointly develop common technology platforms and develop customer solutions based on voice- over-IP technologies. Both companies are committed to developing standards- based solutions. For instance, Ericsson is developing and will offer high- speed (50-60Mbps) flexible wireless datacom solutions for both office and Public Access solutions based on the HiperLAN/2 standard. Symbol's Spectrum24 and NetVision product lines conform to IEEE802.11 airwaves standards and ITU H.323 multimedia standards. Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Caroline Freudenthal, Press Relation Manager Ericsson Business Segment Enterprise Solutions Phone: +46 8 422 20 89, E-mail: caroline.freudentahl@lme.ericsson.se Paul Collinge, Director, Business Development Ericsson Business Segment Enterprise Solutions Phone: +46 8 422 0108, +46 70 580 0529 Doug Picker, Symbol Technologies Phone: +1 516 738 4699 Additional information Symbol Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in mobile data management systems and services with innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for voice and data, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol's wireless LAN solutions are installed at more than 40,000 customer locations, and more than seven million Symbol scanners and application-specific scanner-integrated mobile computer systems are in use worldwide. Symbol and its global network of business partners provide solutions for retailing, transportation and distribution logistics, parcel and postal delivery, healthcare, education manufacturing and other industries. Customer information is available from Symbol at 1-800-722-6234 and at www.symbol.com.