ADC LAUNCHES UNIFIED MESSAGE PORTAL, EXTENDING BROADBAND SERVICES PLATFORM AND ENHANCING ADAPTIVE COMMUNICATION MARKETPLACE.

ADC (Nasdaq:ADCT; www.adc.com), a global supplier of fiber optics, network equipment, software and integration services for broadband, multiservice networks, has launched its new Unified Message Portal (UMP) application, part of its Broadband Services Platform (BSP). Now, subscribers can access voice, fax and e-mail messages over the Web using any e-mail client or using the touch-tone buttons of a telephone.

Through a simple phone or PC interface, ADC's UMP delivers multiple new features to subscribers. While on the phone, UMP's Text-to-Speech service enables subscribers to listen to e-mail and send e-mail attachments (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and other file formats) to another fax number. UMP's Text-to-Speech capabilities are available immediately in American English and Latin American Spanish, to be followed soon by additional languages. While on a PC, subscribers can record a message using the UMP reply-to-voice-mail plug-in and return it to the caller via their Internet connection. This feature eliminates the need for the user to hang up and make a call.

With its congenial interfaces and Web-based subscriber provisioning tools, UMP provides an easy-to-use system for multimedia messaging. For wireless, wireline and Internet Service Providers seeking to enter the lucrative enhanced services marketplace, UMP is designed to make the lives of subscribers easier, help enhance their loyalty and drive higher service revenues. UMP is the latest modular addition to ADC's recently announced Broadband Services Platform, which enables subscribers to reduce the complexity of anywhere, anytime communications, opening a new wave of capabilities for consumers and businesses.

"Unified Message Portal solves a critical problem in the marketplace," said Grant Wakelin, president of ADC's Enhanced Services Division. "With millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of voice mails or e-mails that operate on different systems, there is now a way to combine them economically and efficiently. Unified Message Portal offers a wave of new opportunities for service providers while opening a whole new way for subscribers to simplify communications."

Today there are approximately 407 million Internet users with e-mail as the most popular application. More e-mail is sent today than voice mail and U.S. Postal services mail combined. According to a report from IDC, every business day, 900 million voice mail messages are exchanged. With this exponential growth of the Internet and e-mail, a subscriber's ability to retrieve and respond to e-mail while mobile is as vital as getting their voice mail. Checking messages can be time intensive and costly, especially when the subscriber is mobile and must connect with multiple sources. Subscribers must make several calls - to their voicemail, to their ISP for Internet access, and perhaps even to their office for faxes. This process is expensive, especially when billed through a hotel or calling card. With the launch of ADC's Unified Message Portal, subscribers now have a simple way to check all messages - voice mail, e-mail and fax.

For wireless and wireline service providers, UMP offers multiple benefits. By bundling multimedia messaging with Internet access, subscribers buy messaging services and e-mail in a single package, which is designed to increase loyalty and reduce subscriber churn. With more services consolidated into a single interface, subscribers increase their minutes of usage and activity levels. And by offering the consolidated package from a single platform, service providers can stimulate interest in additional services that are easy to add with a low cost of ownership.

For subscribers, ADC's UMP enables high messaging efficiency, with messages in one location that can be synchronized through a congenial user interface. UMP's flexibility means that subscribers can use a variety of e-mail clients, including Netscape Messenger, Outlook, Eudora, and server based e-mail such as Hotmail and My Yahoo. Subscribers can also view and save faxes on their PC, listen to and save voice mails on their PC, and access fax services without a second phone line.

"The entire enhanced services marketplace has needed a way to break through the barriers to achieve simplicity of communications, all in a package that service providers can count on for future expansion," said Megan Gurley, analyst for Yankee Group.

ADC is The Broadband Company. ADC's fiber optics, network equipment, software and integration services make broadband communications a reality worldwide by enabling communications service providers to deliver high-speed Internet, data, video and voice services to consumers and businesses. ADC (Nasdaq:ADCT) is a Fortune 500 company with sales into more than 130 countries.