Polycom Celebrates 10 Years of Wi-Fi Telephony

Technology pioneer Polycom continues offering customers high quality voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) with industry-leading SpectraLink 8000 Series Wi-Fi handsets

LONDON/SLOUGH, UK - 18 May 2009 : Polycom, Inc. [Nasdaq: PLCM], the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice communications solutions, is celebrating 10 years of VoWLAN. SpectraLink® , now a part of Polycom, first introduced its NetLink Wi-Fi handsets in 1999 and has continued to lead the enterprise VoWLAN market ever since. Today, the company is announcing expanded support for a number of IP communications servers as well as wireless industry standards for wireless quality of service (QoS) and security.

Polycom is launching Release 3.0 for its SpectraLink 8020 and 8030 Wireless Telephones. This release delivers support for enterprise-grade, standards-based QoS and security protocols as well as Cisco Compatible Extensions, providing effective voice prioritisation, power management, admission control and enhanced security mechanisms. With Release 3.0, the wireless telephones also have expanded VoIP interoperability with session initiation protocol (SIP) platforms from NEC, Nortel, and ShoreTel.

SpectraLink led the industry by developing an innovative QoS solution (SpectraLink Voice Priority, or SVP) that allows voice and data to co-exist on wireless LANs and served as the industry's de facto QoS standard for nearly a decade. Additionally, SpectraLink developed its Voice Interoperability for Enterprise Wireless (VIEW) certification programme, which verifies interoperability and performance with Wi-Fi infrastructure vendors, to help drive enterprise adoption of VoWLAN.

"Voice over Wi-Fi, or VoFi, is rapidly becoming a key driver for the enterprise adoption of wireless LANs," said Craig Mathias, a Principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. "SpectraLink led the way to today's converged wireless network for voice and data. Polycom continues the SpectraLink legacy by delivering higher functionality and performance while maintaining a key focus on both standards and interoperability – the keys to the success of VoFi in the enterprise."

"Both Polycom and SpectraLink have a rich history for embracing openness and interoperability," said Ben Guderian, vice president of wireless vertical solutions at Polycom. "By combining forces, we are meeting the needs of the rapidly growing enterprise IP telephony market in a way that allows our customers to choose best-of-breed solutions regardless of their communications platform and network infrastructure. This type of flexibility is exactly what Polycom customers have come to expect and a key reason they continue to use our reliable, high-quality products for their communications needs."

As part of its commitment to interoperability and open standards, Polycom is the telephony sponsor for the InteropNet at Interop in Las Vegas for the third consecutive year. The company is deploying an end-to-end telephony voice over IP (VoIP) solution featuring Polycom's award-winning HD Voice™ line of SoundPoint® and SoundStation® IP phones and its SpectraLink 8000 Series wireless handsets. The SpectraLink handsets will provide seamless Wi-Fi communications for the trade show's demanding wireless environment.

"For the past three years, Polycom has provided us with voice communication solutions that work in one of the most adverse and diverse environments you are going to find. Polycom's commitment to standards-based solutions has allowed us to deploy their endpoints regardless of who provides the call server and wireless network, and this level of interoperability is exactly what the InteropNet is about," said Geoff Horne, architect for the InteropNet. "Both Interop staff and the NOC team enjoy the ability to stay in touch with each other and their families no matter where they were in the convention center using high quality Polycom phones, and we're delighted to include Polycom as our telephony supplier for the third consecutive year."

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Please visit www.polycom.com for more information.

© 2009 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom "Triangles" logo and the names and marks associated with Polycom's products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries.

Contacts

• Angelika Kempf
  Polycom, Inc.
  Tel: +49 811 999 4218
  angelika.kempf@polycom.com