Westell Portfolio Delivers Fixed-Line Voice for Wireless Service Providers

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UltraVoice(TM) UMA portfolio delivers high-performance fixed-line voice for wireless carriers

AURORA, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Westell Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of broadband products, gateways and conferencing services, today introduced a new product portfolio that enables wireless service providers (SPs) to provide fixed-line telephone service to residential customers.

Westell's UltraVoice(TM) UMA Terminal Adapter (TA) and router products deliver high-performance voice services in the home over fixed broadband connections (for example, via cable modem or DSL) using Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology. This results in an immediate opportunity for wireless SPs to differentiate their market offerings and increase average revenue per user (ARPU) by quickly and cost-effectively delivering fixed-line voice services to their subscriber base.

"Westell is pleased to introduce the UltraVoice high-performance voice-enabled products for mobile operators to assist them in developing profitable revenues from home phone services", said Muckai Girish, Vice President for Wireless and VoIP solutions at Westell. "We have leveraged our extensive experience in home gateway development to deliver cost-optimized products for wireless service providers that are simple to deploy and elegantly fit into the mobile infrastructure."

UMA technology originally was developed to provide mobile handsets with access to mobile networks over WiFi access points and Generic Access Networks, which are typically broadband networks including DSL, cable and fiber. Westell's UltraVoice UMA TA extends this technology to a fixed-line service, so that people can make phone calls using their existing home phones, including standard analog and cordless phones. Like mobile handsets, the UltraVoice UMA TA uses SIM cards to register and authenticate subscribers on the network. This standards-based approach allows the wireless carrier to cost-effectively re-use existing network infrastructure as well as methods for network authentication and billing as they introduce home phone services to their customer base.

The UltraVoice UMA TA ensures quality of service for revenue-generating UMA traffic. It is equipped with extensive VoIP and routing prioritization features to ensure voice traffic is not negatively impacted by other home network traffic competing for the same bandwidth. Its dual-core processor with hardware-accelerated routing delivers high-performance networking alongside VoIP processing with carrier-grade voice quality. As a modular terminal adapter, the UltraVoice UMA TA provides a cost-optimized complement to existing home routers.

The UltraVoice UMA TA and router provide several valuable features: 

    --  Private-label branding options for service providers
    --  Two RJ11 ports for standard telephone connectivity
    --  Dual-SIM card reader
    --  Dual-core processor with hardware-accelerated routing delivers
        high-performance in a small, lightweight form factor
    --  Integrated full-featured router with firewall
    --  Works over any broadband network
    --  Fast setup: simply connect cables, power-on and go
    --  Remote configuration and management.

This UltraVoice UMA TA is available immediately for customer trials.

About Westell

Westell Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ: WSTL) is a holding company for Westell, Inc. and ConferencePlus, Inc. Westell, Inc. designs and develops broadband communications access products. ConferencePlus, Inc. is a collaborative Application Service Provider that manages and hosts voice, video, IP applications and back-office services. Additional information can be obtained by visiting Westell's Web site at www.westell.com.

"Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995:

Certain statements contained herein that are not historical facts or that contain the words "believe", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", or derivatives thereof and other words of similar meanings are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, product demand and market acceptance risks, need for financing, an economic downturn in the U.S. economy and telecom market, the impact of competitive products or technologies, competitive pricing pressures, new product development, excess and obsolete inventory, commercialization and technological delays or difficulties (including delays or difficulties in developing, producing, testing and selling new products and technologies), the effect of Westell's accounting policies, the need for additional capital, the effect of economic conditions and trade, legal social and economic risks (such as import, licensing and trade restrictions) and other risks more fully described in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 under the section Risk Factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect current events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or otherwise. 


    Source: Westell Technologies, Inc.

Released January 20, 2009