3Com Delivers the Promises of Internet Protocol Telephony to Small Business.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- New 3Com(R) NBX(R) V3000 IP telephony platform offers small businesses opportunity to increase employee productivity and enhance customer relationships

3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced it has begun shipping the newest edition of its award-winning 3Com(R) NBX(R) Internet Protocol (IP) telephony product line, the 3Com NBX V3000 platform.

The 3Com NBX V3000 platform is the latest element of the 3Com Convergence Applications Suite announced in October 2004. The new NBX V3000 platform provides small organizations with the benefits of IP telephony while lowering the cost and complexity of an initial deployment by offering integrated call management, voice mail and central office connectivity in a one self-contained platform. Designed to look quite familiar atop a desk, a 3Com IP telephone masks a wealth of superior capabilities. Users can easily manage calls and dial contacts from their personal computers (PCs) or use a web browser to change how and when calls reach them. They can also prioritize their work by reviewing and listening to voice mails from their e-mail.

"The 3Com NBX V3000 platform changes the way small businesses leverage the telephone as a business tool as well as how they best serve their customers," said Dave Hattey, 3Com vice president and general manager, enterprise voice solutions. "Small businesses need better tools for client communications. For years we have had access to our office voice mail and e-mail from anywhere, however, it is cumbersome, costly and reactive. Phone calls are more time dependant yet customers are left trapped in voice mail or sent off to dial another cell phone or pager."

"The 3Com NBX V3000 system allows staff that work from a home office, multiple offices or from a cell phone to stay connected to their office phone system," Hattey said. "Offering personalized service gives a small business competitive advantage. 3Com offers better tools, at a better value, to help them succeed."

Small Businesses Strengthen Customer Interaction

Leveraging the benefits of an open architectural design, third-party off-the-shelf applications, such as advance call center and customer relationship management, can be easily integrated within 3Com NBX V3000 platform implementations. Popular PC programs like Microsoft Outlook or ACT! can also be easily integrated without having to buy additional hardware or software, allowing users to dial from their address books and manage contacts. Businesses now have affordable access to applications that help increase user productivity, lower overall costs and strengthen customer interaction.

This new, self-contained IP PBX (private branch exchange) initially comes equipped with four central office ports, a station-side analog port for a fax machine or analog phones and embedded applications such as an automated attendant/voice mail system with e-mail integration, desktop call management, graphical call reports and a host of other advance features that are typically expensive options. The 3Com NBX V3000 system can also seamlessly grow with a business, easily supporting more than a thousand users.

The 3Com NBX V3000 hardware and software (NBX system release 4.4) supports the complete portfolio of 3Com IP phones, gateways and accessories. The new platform is compatible with other, existing 3Com NBX hardware, assuring investment protection and seamless upgrades. The new software also includes support for zone paging, allowing the customer to specify a particular group or individuals on the system to be paged via the speaker on system phones. An enhanced "personal operator" feature, allows individual users to choose an alternate phone number, such as a mobile phone, a second office or even home phone number, to be their operator coverage instead of using their default system operator.

Real-World Results

Steven Catapano, chief operating officer for Harbor Lights Financial Group, a financial planning firm based in Manasquan, N. J., under estimated how he and the firm's three partners could improve operations among 12 other employees until he installed the 3Com NBX V3000 platform in October.

"Prior to using the 3Com NBX V3000 platform, I was not very familiar with IP telephony technologies and didn't fully understand the true benefits a small company can get from using 3Com IP telephony products," said Catapano. "We plan on having staff working from multiple places. With the 3Com NBX V3000 platform, we now have a whole level of communication with each other. More importantly, by being able to truly work together, as one team, we are giving our clients better service and faster access to the people and information they need."

Tom Jacobs, president of Jacobs Agency, an advertising agency based in Chicago, Illinois said, "Advertising is a business where time is critical and our customers want it yesterday. With our old phone system, we would wait days for a technician to show-up and make the simplest change to the system. Hiring a new employee or making an office move meant paying $75 per hour for a technician to come in and make changes. We are spending an average of $3,000 to $5,000 a year just for basic changes and we had to wait to get them. Now with the 3Com NBX V3000 system, we can do all the changes ourselves through a web-browser, no waiting and no bill. On top of the savings, the new system helps the staff stay in-touch with clients even if they are on the road or working from home. It's simple, we get more done, done faster and for less money."

"We needed to improve our ability to handle a rising volume of incoming calls from customers without adding staff," said Srini Vasan, vice president of eShipGlobal, Inc., an Irving, Texas-based logistical application service provider. "The 3Com NBX V3000 platform easily solved that first challenge and we now have staff working right from their homes and remote locations, using their DSL and cable connections. We're looking forward to doing even more with it in the coming months."

3Com Product Availability and Sales Distribution

The 3Com NBX V3000 platform is available for a list price of $1,995 including four analog central office gateway ports, four auto-attendant/voice mail ports and 400 hours of voice mail storage, one analog station-side gateway port for fax machine, support for 250 call processor devices (expandable to 1,500 devices) and 15 free 3Com IP phone licenses. 3Com sells and markets IP telephony hardware and software and other 3Com-branded products through an authorized set of system integrators and channel partners worldwide.

About 3Com IP Telephony

3Com has been a major contributor to the convergence industry since the introduction in 1998 of the world's first IP-PBX, the 3Com(R) NBX(R) system. The company developed an architecture for a distributed softswitch for AT&T and brought the first commercially deployed carrier softswitch to market in 1999. In addition to the 3Com NBX family for small business, the 3Com(R) VCX(TM) IP Telephony module was first introduced in 2003 for large enterprises. Today, the company combines these products under the 3Com Convergence Applications Suite - a comprehensive capability for IP Telephony, IP Messaging, IP Conferencing and IP Contact Center. For further information, please visit www.3com.com/voip.

About 3Com Corporation

3Com is a leading provider of converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. 3Com offers a broad line of innovative products backed by world-class sales, service and support, which excel at delivering business value for its customers. When customers exercise choice, their choice is 3Com. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

3Com, the 3Com logo and NBX are registered trademarks and VCX and Exercise Choice are trademarks of 3Com Corporation.