Cellular 3G to Enable Full Rate Broadband Wireless Connections; Announces The Carphone Warehouse as First Customer.

Business Editors

CeBIT 2002

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2002

Europe's Largest Independent Mobile Phone Retailer

Selects 3G-Modem to Make High-Speed Mobile Devices Possible

for European Customers

Cellular 3G Inc., formerly known as 3G.com -- a provider of silicon solutions for 3G wireless devices, today announced the industry's first full range compact flash and PCMCIA modem cards for connecting wireless devices to 3G networks. The company also announced that The Carphone Warehouse, Europe's largest independent mobile communications retailer, will adopt Cellular3G technology to serve as an active component in its migration from voice to full support of data products, on the soon to be deployed 3G cellular networks. Cellular 3G, in collaboration with Maxim Integrated Products, a worldwide leader in linear and mixed-signal integrated circuits, has designed a compact flash form factor and PCMCIA 3G-modem card that will enable existing mobile devices to send and receive at full rate, rich-content Internet applications such as video over 3G networks.

Delivering a connectivity solution with the speed and computation power required for sending and receiving 3G applications in a form factor compact enough for mobile devices is a major cost and technical challenge. Cellular 3G is meeting the challenge with a PC card that offers high data throughput, excellent radio performance and long battery life with a footprint consistent with the size of mobile devices including phones, PDAs and laptop computers. Cellular 3G's PCMCIA 3G-modem card is the first to employ full implementation of the 3GPP W-CDMA FDD standard and offers a multi-receiver architecture for better radio performance that enables up to 2Mbps data transfer in both directions with very low power consumption.

"We selected Cellular 3G's PC card to give our customers the freedom of true wireless broadband connections on the laptops they already have," said Ed Moore, CTO, The Carphone Warehouse. "Cellular 3G offered the most advanced design with the most powerful capabilities of any available 3G-modem card."

"My partners and I started out three years ago with a focus on developing solutions to help make wireless broadband technology feasible and available for the average consumer," said Menachem Kenan, CEO and chairman. "To that end, we assembled an impressive team of engineers with the expertise and a relentless commitment to help us realize this vision. This response we've gotten from companies like The Carphone Warehouse, a European powerhouse in mobile communications, and Maxim, the undisputed leader in IC, is a testament to just how far we've come in achieving our goal."

Cellular 3G is founded and staffed by a seasoned team that includes top scientists and developers with proven track records in the industry and has raised nearly $20 million from leading venture capitalists, including German STAR Ventures, Jupiter International PLC and SFK among others. The company has been actively involved in the 3GPP and ETSI committees since early 1999 and has several patents pending in the areas of communications, semiconductors and cellular communications. Cellular 3G is exhibiting at the CeBIT exhibition in Hanover, Germany, March 13th - 20th, where it plans to demonstrate its 3G-modem card, as well as new product lines based on its advanced design methodology.

The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC was founded in 1989 and has experienced rapid growth in the 1990s under the leadership of Charles Dunstone and David Ross. The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC is today the only independent pan-European retailer of mobile telephony products and services. It is the leading independent mobile phone retailer in the U.K., France, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands and Ireland, in each case in terms of market share. The Group has over 1,000 stores in 12 European markets and employs over 5,500 people.

About Cellular 3G

Cellular 3G Inc. (formerly 3G.com) is bringing to market the most power efficient baseband integrated circuit, fully compliant with the highest bit rates of third generation (3GPP) standards, which will enable wireless carriers to deliver broadband Internet access over mobile devices. With business headquarters in Lexington, Massachusetts, and an R&D department in Netanya, Israel, the company has developed exceptional expertise and leadership in all areas crucial to the design of advanced wireless component devices, including cellular design, RF communication, VLSI design and wireless standards. Backed by leading venture groups, Cellular 3G is singularly positioned to enter the market with products critical to the advancement of 3G networks. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.cellular3g.com.