A New Low Cost Videophone from CuPhone - Promises to Make Video Communication a Daily Habit.

Business Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 2000

CuPhone launches a new PC videophone that is affordable to the home user, works over a standard telephone line or via the Internet, and works together with the user's regular telephone to provide echo free audio. In the Internet

mode, it allows PC users to enjoy conversations with their friends and family using video or audio via their Internet connection, saving the cost of long-distance telephone calls.

By simply plugging into the USB port of a PC and to the user's regular phone, CuPhone's USB VideoPhone can be installed by anyone that can put a plug into a socket and a disk in a disk drive. No tools are required. The CuPhone uses power from the USB bus so there is no requirement for a separate power supply.

Key to any successful videophone product is the quality and usability of the audio. Without doubt the most important single feature of the CuPhone is the integration with the user's existing phone and the use of a regular phone handset for voice communication. The regular telephone handset provides comfortable echo free conversation and was the solution chosen by CuPhone to improve upon the PC sound system approach found in most other PC based videophones.

CuPhone's user interface is a celebration of simplicity and has been designed to provide ease of use. However the user has access to a wide range of functions via the OPTION button that includes selection of Internet or standard phone line operation.

The CuPhone supports video surveillance/monitoring with the auto answer with call screening option that enables an authorized user to call and have the remote CuPhone automatically answer. This means the user can easily check on their family, home or office from anywhere in the world.

Dr. YW Sing, Chairman of CuPhone and co-founder of 8X8, the world leading videophone and VoIP Company, commented, "The development team at CuPhone has 40 years of experience with video conferencing systems and videophones. Our team has a great deal of understanding of the historical barriers to mass-market adoption of routine video communications. They set out to overcome those barriers and I think they have done an excellent job."

Dr. Sing continued, "Total system cost, ease of installation, simplicity of operation and the quality of the communication experience are the areas that we focused on. A good example of the nature of our solution is a CuPhone application called CuBuddy that allows Internet calls to be made to your contact list using their email addresses. CuBuddy also tells you which of your "buddies" is online at any time. CuBuddy makes Internet calling one click easy."

CuPhone has other important features:

A regular telephone call between two CuPhone enabled parties can be converted into a video call (without redialing) at any time during the call by turning on the PCs at both ends and clicking on the Start Video/Accept Video buttons on the CuPhone application screen.

Another CuPhone function enables the telephone handset to be used to make free long distance Internet audio calls to any regular North American telephone. By using the telephone handset, Internet voice calls are essentially the same as making a regular call.

The CuPhone is not limited to calling other CuPhone systems. Using the phone line option, calls can be made to any H.324 compliant videophone anywhere in the world that you can place a phone call and the Internet option enables calls to be made to any H.323 compliant videophone systems such as NetMeeting. H.324 and H.323 are the international standards for making video calls over standard phone lines and over the Internet.

The CuPhone is priced at $99. Tax and shipping are extra and are destination dependent. Orders can be placed on the CuPhone website www.CuPhone.com.

CuPhone, based out of San Jose, is focused on bringing low cost, high quality videophone solutions with excellent usability to the mass market. Our mission is to make the CuPhone USB VideoPhone as easy to use and as common as a mouse.