3Com Wins Three-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Contract From The Department Of Education And Training In Australia’s Northern Territory

3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced it has won a three-year, multi-million dollar contract with the Department of Education and Training (DET) in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). 3Com will provide a broad range of high-value H3C® enterprise networking solutions to fulfill DET NT’s wireless and networking needs for unified communications and multimedia learning. The network upgrade is part of DET NT’s ongoing initiative to create an infrastructure that delivers robust performance, efficiency and cost-savings for 187 schools across the territory. The deployment will improve control and service delivery to 43,000 students and 5,000 staff spread across the NT.

3Com secured the contract based on its long track record of success in similar deployments in the education sector, and its ability to provide customers reliable and advanced networking solutions that also offer unmatched price-for-performance benefits compared to competitive solutions.

“3Com has gained a reputation among education and government institutions for offering the most high-performing, resilient and secure networking infrastructures in the business at the best possible value. Our latest success with DET NT adds to the strong business traction we are seeing in Australia and highlights the compelling price-performance advantage we hold over competitors,” said Angela Hughes, country manager for 3Com Australia and New Zealand.

3Com will supply its core-to-edge H3C® switching and wireless infrastructure to DET NT. 3Com’s new infrastructure will enhance communications through unified communications, multimedia learning and high-speed wireless access from anywhere on campus. Additionally, the project will include maintenance for each of the schools and training for staff at four key NT locations, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy and Darwin.

The 3Com H3C enterprise networking solutions deployed by DET NT include:

• H3C S7500E Series Switches — These high-end multi-service routing switches support multiple network environments, including: enterprise LAN core, aggregation and wiring closet edge, as well converged and edge Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and data centers;
• H3C S5500EI Series Switches — These high performance Gigabit Ethernet switches for edge, distribution and core applications with Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF®) technology can virtualize multiple switches into one logical switch to improve resiliency, flexibility and manageability;
• H3C S5120 Series Switches — These layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet intelligent manageable switches are designed for networks where high-performance, high-density port access, and easy installation are required;
• H3C “school in a box” converged solutions — This solution comprises an H3C MSR 30 series router with voice, wireless, 3G and data connectivity in a single device, suitable for both deployment at smaller schools and Disaster Recovery capabilities in the event of an emergency, e.g., floods, fires, etc.;
• H3C Wireless Controller and Access Points — These WA2620-AGN Access Points will provide 802.11n high speed wireless connectivity within a school, and centralized management via the WX series Wireless Controllers; and
• Intelligent Management Centre (IMC) — This end-to-end enterprise-class management solution provides unique, single-pane management of the entire heterogeneous enterprise network infrastructure.

About 3Com

3Com Corporation (3Com) is a global enterprise networking solutions provider. 3Com has three global product and solutions brands: H3C, 3Com, and TippingPoint that offer networking and security solutions to enterprises large and small. The H3C enterprise networking portfolio includes products that span from the data center to the edge of the network and is targeted at large enterprises. TippingPoint features network-based intrusion prevention systems (IPS) that deliver application, infrastructure and performance protection. Its portfolio of products and solutions enable customers to manage business-critical voice, data, video and other networking technologies in a secure network environment. 3Com’s portfolio of products and services enable customers to deploy and manage data, voice, video and other advanced networking technologies in a secure network environment.