Cisco, Conexant and Hughes Join Forces to Speed Dial-Up Modem Performance Using New Compression Technology.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

NEWPORT BEACH, SAN DIEGO & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- July 11, 2000

Three communications leaders in the dial-up modem market have joined forces to implement a new industry-standard compression technology that will speed data throughput by 20 percent to 60 percent when downloading Web pages and other mixed-media content.

Originally developed for the satellite industry to maximize available bandwidth, the new V.44 compression technology was finalized June 30 by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as an industry standard. Developed by Hughes Network Systems, the new V.44 technology has been licensed by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) and Conexant Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT) and will be incorporated into Conexant's full line of next-generation client-side and central-site dial-up modem chips.

"Cisco's market leadership in remote access servers and concentrators is based on continuous support of industry standards," said Charles Fadel, manager, product marketing for Cisco Systems' Remote Access Product Division. "We believe the new V.44 modem specification will offer end-users a significant downstream performance improvement -- an improvement they will experience as faster downloads of HTML pages."

"We are once again delivering a significant advancement for dial-up modem technology," said Dean Grumlose, division director of multiservice access products for Conexant's Network Access Division. "Dial-up modems continue to thrive as the most attractive connectivity solution available because of their ubiquity, and because of their balance of cost and performance.

"Meanwhile, the industry continues to innovate, and key new advances like V.44 will make a big difference for Internet users worldwide. The improvement in download speeds that V.44 offers will be as dramatic as when the industry moved from V.34 to V.90. Our full-system solutions featuring V.44 will make it easy for manufacturers to implement this new standard and improve real download speeds for modem users worldwide."

"Hughes Network Systems is excited to take part in revolutionizing the dial-up modem marketplace with Conexant and Cisco," said Jim Gandolfi, vice president of Hughes Network Systems' San Diego division.

"The commitment of these industry leaders to incorporate V.44's excellent compression ratios and extremely fast execution times into their product offerings validates the technology as a quantum leap in data compression and its application to all types of wireless and wireline data communications."

V.44 is a compression standard that supplants the earlier V.42 bis technology, which helped to nearly quadruple the dial-up modem data transfer rate across the wire as compared to raw, uncompressed data rates. V.44 is a more efficient algorithm and has the same effect on download speeds as the earlier move from V.34 to typical V.90 connections. In the case of V.90, the amount of improvement was determined by the quality of the line.

In the case of V.44, the amount of improvement is dynamic, and depends on the data content. When compared to the existing V.42 bis compression standard, V.44 can yield typical speed improvements of 20 percent to 60 percent, up to as much as 200 percent for certain types of highly compressible data.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at www.cisco.com.

About Conexant Systems Inc.

With a revenue run-rate of approximately $2 billion per year, Conexant is the world's largest independent company focused exclusively on providing semiconductor solutions for communications electronics. With more than 30 years of experience in developing communications technology, the company draws upon its expertise in mixed-signal processing to deliver integrated systems and semiconductor products for a broad range of communications applications.

These products facilitate communications worldwide through wireline voice and data communications networks, cordless and cellular wireless telephony systems, personal imaging devices and equipment, and emerging cable and wireless broadband communications networks.

The company aligns its business into five product platforms: Network Access, Wireless Communications, Digital Infotainment, Personal Imaging and Personal Computing. Conexant is a member of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 Indices. For more information, visit Conexant at www.conexant.com.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, with headquarters in Germantown, Md., near Washington, D.C., is a unit of Hughes Electronics Corp. and a leading supplier of broadband satellite and wireless products, services and networks. HNS is a world leader in the manufacture of very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks with more than 300,000 VSATs installed worldwide and is one of the largest manufacturers of DIRECTV(R) direct-to-home satellite television systems.

HNS provides DirecWay(TM) broadband, IP-based services to the enterprise and DirecPC(R) high-speed satellite Internet services to the consumer. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to the General Motors Class H common stock (NYSE:GMH). For additional information, visit the HNS Web site at www.hns.com.

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