Alvarion and Accton Form Company to Develop Mass Market Consumer Devices for WiMAX

Alvarion Ltd. the world’s leading provider of wireless broadband and WiMAX solutions, and Accton Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 2345), the Asian provider of networking and communications equipment, today announced that together they have formed Accton Wireless Broadband (AWB)—a new company based in Taiwan—to develop mass market WiMAX consumer electronic devices in order to complement Alvarion’s WiMAX offerings while facilitating the transition of WiMAX and Personal Broadband services to worldwide availability.

AWB (www.awbnetwork.com) will be an innovative, fast-moving organization designing and developing high volume customer premises equipments (CPEs) and other end user devices based on the 802.16e-2005 WiMAX specifications, or what is commonly referred to as mobile WiMAX. AWB will sell its devices to Alvarion to be part of its Open WiMAX solution 4Motion which uses Best of Breed systems, as well as other broadband wireless systems and solutions to be delivered as part of their offerings to carriers, service providers, and end-users worldwide.

Mass market consumer devices connecting to Open WiMAX™ networks will be the standard technology for business and personal users to access media centric Personal Broadband telecommunications services including voice, video, and data offerings. This cooperation augments Alvarion’s 4Motion™ Open WiMAX solution to include a wide variety of industry-standard, WiMAX enabled devices and customer-premise equipment while significantly enhancing the number and types of self-installable and outdoor WiMAX CPEs.

“This is a great opportunity to partner with one of the biggest broadband wireless companies in the world,” said A.J. Huang, CEO of Accton Group. “The combination of Alvarion’s market leading core technology and long deployment history with Accton’s research and development capabilities in wireless OEM products will greatly accelerate the introduction of next generation wireless broadband consumer products with advanced features. We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with Alvarion in creating AWB, and in driving it to being a leading company in WiMAX end user devices.”

With the formation of AWB, Accton is leveraging its IP networking and communications equipment experience, high-volume, cost-effective manufacturing, and vast working knowledge of using strategic partnerships to design, develop and manufacture innovative, leading-edge products. Alvarion is contributing its experience from helping to lead the development of the WiMAX specification and the development of its own WiMAX products from the beginnings of the industry, in addition to its current position as the world’s leading vendor of WiMAX equipment. Initially, AWB will concentrate on the production of PCMCIA cards, indoor self-installable, and outdoor Residential Gateways with an expected release date in Q2 of 2007.

“Alvarion’s core WiMAX expertise, experience and strong sales channels combined with Accton’s experience in consumer electronics, innovation, and creativity will propel AWB to becoming a world-class supplier of WiMAX devices and CPEs,” said Tzvika Friedman, chief executive officer of Alvarion. “In addition, AWB allows Alvarion to economically expand its leadership in WiMAX CPEs as it transitions to a mass market, offering a wider variety of innovative end user devices to our customers. It is a strategic element of our 4Motion Open WiMAX solution, as we continue to focus on building all the element of the 4Motion solution. ”

According to a recent Maravedis market research, the WiMAX and proprietary CPE equipment market will reach an annual US$3.7 billion in 2012, rising from US$490 million in 2006.

A catalyst for this venture is M-Taiwan, a government initiative to create a mobile 'Ubiquitous Network' and provide e-services throughout Taiwan. "The establishment of this promising AWB joint venture is an important industry endorsement of the M-Taiwan initiative," said Ho Mei-Yueh, Minister without portfolio, Taiwan Executive Yuan. "The winning combination of Alvarion, the worldwide WiMAX leader, and Accton, a leading IP device vendor in Asia, is strategic for the WiMAX industry in creating strong synergies to advance the creation of a worldwide WiMAX ecosystem while being something that benefits Taiwan overall.”