Ericsson's GSM on the Net to enter trials with Pacific Bell Wireless and UC Berke

Ericsson's 'GSM on the Net' to enter trials with Pacific Bell Wireless and UC Berkeley Ericsson's GSM on the Net solution for providing IP-based wireless multimedia services will enter trials with Pacific Bell Wireless in the US. At the same time, new applications for the system will be investigated independently at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Computer Science. PacBell Wireless will commence trials of GSM on the Net in its GSM network in California and Nevada during the second quarter of 1999. In a related development, the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Computer Science will use a GSM on the Net system in independent trials to develop open interface applications. PacBell Wireless will provide radio frequencies to Berkeley for work on the project carried on at the department, which is supported by Ericsson. "We, at Pacific Bell Wireless, will be evaluating this new development as an additional feature to our service offerings in California and Nevada," said Dave Williams, vice president of Network Technology for Pacific Bell Wireless. "If the trial is successful, I see this as an excellent solution for small- to medium-sized businesses that value the extra mobility it will give to their staff, allowing far greater productivity than conventional, fixed PBX solutions." "Ericsson's leading-edge products will give us a major new capability for our research projects into exploiting an Internet-based core that integrates telecommunications access networks and new telephony service architectures," said Randy Katz, chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley. "Ericsson's support is helping bring Berkeley to the forefront of research in wireless and Internet-based technologies." "GSM on the Net is designed to make the truly wireless office an affordable reality," said Bengt-Ake Ljudén, marketing manager for GSM on the Net at Ericsson. "Once fully developed and deployed, it will ensure local and global mobility, multimedia capabilities and advanced IP-based applications for businesses and other group users." GSM services are available in some 2,500 cities in North America through PacBell Wireless and 16 other GSM operators of 1900 MHz networks. 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 Kathy Egan, Vice President, Communications, Ericsson Inc. Phone: +1 212 685 4030; E-mail: kathy.egan@eus.ericsson.com Bengt-Ake Ljudén, Marketing Manager, GSM on the Net Ericsson Business Unit GSM Systems Phone: +46 8 757 2808 or +46 70 577 1020 E-mail: bengt-ake.ljuden@era.ericsson.se Dave Williams, VP of Network Technology, Pacific Bell Wireless Phone: +1 925 227 3090; E-mail: dwilliam@pacbell.mobile.com Randy Katz, chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley Phone: +1 510 642 8778; E-mail: randy@cs.berkeley.edu GSM on the Net - Overview As an integrated GSM-IP solution, Ericsson's GSM on the Net uses small radio base stations to add local-area GSM coverage to office LANs, giving users what is, in effect, their own mini GSM network. With seamless, one-number access, subscribers can use a variety of terminals - GSM phones, PC phones, multimedia terminals or fixed IP phones - with no or minimal charges for internal calls. As well as providing seamless GSM access, the solution supports personal and organizational productivity via computer-telephony integration. Potential integrated applications include web-initiated telephony, unified messaging, advanced conferencing and application sharing using voice, datacoms and video. Company Information Pacific Bell Wireless offers PCS wireless services to a population of more than 30 million people in major cities in California and Nevada, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas and San Diego. Pacific Bell Wireless is a subsidiary of SBC Communications Inc., a global leader in the telecommunications industry, with more than 36.9 million access lines and 6.5 million wireless customers across the USA, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in 11 countries. Founded in 1868, UC Berkeley is the flagship campus of the nine campuses in the University of California systems and serves around 33,000 students. Its academic reputation is world-renowned, and it was ranked as the #1 graduate university, as measured by the number of top-ranked departments, in the United States by the National Research Council.