3Com Helps to Create a Virtual Community Network in a New Jersey City With ATM.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 1998--3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS), a leader in providing innovative networking solutions for education environments, today announced that the City of Vineland, New Jersey, and the Vineland Public School District will deploy the state's first metropolitan area network (MAN) delivering Internet and intranet resources to city employees, public school students and faculty.

A unique partnership between 3Com, local government, the school district, and community resources, including the Vineland Public Library, will create a virtual community network. The network, spanning 69 square miles, will deliver voice, video and data services, including training and curriculum-based applications to over 300 city employees and more than 9,000 students and faculty within the Vineland Public School District.

"The Vineland MAN system's goal is to develop an infrastructure of connectivity to form a complete information-based community," said Stephen Dantinne, supervisor of technologies for Vineland Public Schools. "Vineland is the first city to develop an inter-agency agreement between schools and the local government, giving us additional resources to set up, use and maintain the network."

A New Way of Learning, Teaching and Working

Beginning in September, Vineland will rollout Internet and e-mail access to all city employees, 800 school district facility and teachers and 1,500 high school students. Additional next-generation instructional technologies including converged video, voice and data computer labs, multimedia CD-ROM jukeboxes delivering access to programs such as mathematics, science, and foreign languages will be implemented into curriculums from kindergarten to high schools classrooms.

"Vineland is a model for other cities that are searching for ways to prepare their infrastructures for the 21st Century," says David Katz, 3Com director of global education markets. "Not only will the Vineland MAN be the largest of its kind on the East Coast, but it is a revolutionary agreement between the school district and local government constituencies to offer high speed information access to city's employees and students, and in the future to residents."

The city has partnered with Vineland Municipal Electric Company to provide and install over 70 miles of fiber optic cable, allowing the 13 city government buildings and 23 school sites to create its own private network and share a common high-speed, city-wide backbone.

3Com implemented 14 CoreBuilder 7000 high-function ATM switches in the network core. Five of the switches deliver the high throughput of OC-12 (622 Mbps) and the other nine switches deliver OC-3 (155 Mbps). The city will use the CoreBuilder 7000 switch for the City Hall building to provide switched 10 Mbps Ethernet connections to the desktop from the ATM core.

Network of the Future

Once the Vineland network is in place, the future potential for growth will lie in reaching out to businesses and other communities. The school district has plans to implement distance learning applications with other schools and districts, and to provide students with an enriched educational experience.

City officials and business owners are interested in linking into the Vineland Chamber of Commerce website to promote better business practices and increase communication to Vineland residents. The local hospital may soon connect with other medical clinics and private doctor offices with telemedicine applications that will benefit citizens who live in outreaching areas.

"The future of the network depends on how the people of Vineland wish to incorporate it into their everyday lives," added Dantinne, who developed and oversees the entire project. "A lawyer twelve miles away in the future will have an opportunity to videoconference a deposition with a fellow lawyer or client; parents of students will be able to discuss their children's educational progress with teachers via e-mail; students and teachers from different schools can share curriculums. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations."

About 3Com

3Com Corporation enables individuals and organizations worldwide to communicate and share information and resources at anytime from anywhere. As one of the world's preeminent suppliers of data, voice and video communications technology, 3Com has delivered networking solutions to more than 200 million customers worldwide. The company provides large enterprises, small and medium enterprises, carriers and network service providers, and consumers comprehensive, innovative information access products and system solutions for building intelligent, reliable and high performance local and wide area networks. For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at http://www.3Com.com or the press site at http//www.3Com.com/pressbox.

Note to Editors: 3Com is a registered trademark and Corebuilder is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.