fSONA and Lasercom Team up to Delliver Reliable VoIP to Creo with Free Space Optics

Vancouver, Canada – September 14, 2004 - fSONA Systems Corp., a leader in optical wireless technology, today announced that through local reseller partner, Lasercom, they have deployed a SONAbeam optical wireless link to Creo, a global leader in digital imaging and software for the print industry, for use with voice over IP (VoIP).

Creo, a global leader in digital imaging and software for the print industry, had outgrown their corporate campus headquarters and found themselves without space for a team of telemarketing professionals. They were able to find office space to lease nearby but still needed to establish telecommunications for the team.Creo’s Network & Telecom Manager, Russell Adams had only three weeks to select and deploy a reliable, cost-effective solution.

Adams first considered laying fiber but it would be next to impossible to complete right of way negotiations and trenching within their three week timeframe. Plus the expense of laying fiber would be difficult to justify for a satellite office they planned to occupy for no more than two years. But Adams had another idea - he had heard of optical wireless, also known as Free Space Optics or FSO, from another company in the area that used the technology to solve a similar problem.

With optical wireless, Adams could provide all the bandwidth needed for the telemarketer’s telephone system and still have plenty of bandwidth left over for Internet and LAN access. In addition, the fSONA equipment would easily achieve a return on investment within twelve months, and probably much sooner.

Not all wireless connections are suitable for VoIP, VoIP requires low-latency connections in order to maintain a high quality of service, ideally less than 100 milliseconds. As well, problems can arise if the amount of latency fluctuates; this is often referred to as “jitter”. SONAbeam optical wireless systems have latency characteristics that are identical to that of fiber-optic cable, effectively zero. In addition, the latency of a SONAbeam link will never fluctuate making SONAbeam an ideal transport method for VoIP applications.

“The link has been successfully providing voice over IP access to the group of telemarketers for close to a month with no hiccups or problems,” stated Adams. “I’m extremely satisfied with the SOANbeam and would certainly recommend it to others. I only wish all my interactions with vendors went this smoothly. Now that I have seen for myself how well this technology works, I consider it part of my arsenal and would not hesitate to use it again.” Once the group has moved out of the office, Adams plans to keep the SONAbeam on hand as a Disaster Recovery (DRP) backup system.

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About fSONA
fSONA Systems is recognized as the preferred provider of optical wireless solutions for government, enterprise and service provider markets around the globe. Leveraging leading edge advancements in 1550nm optical transmission, the SONAbeam™ family of systems, based on free-space-optics (FSO), use a globally unlicensed, wireless technology to provide speeds up to 2.5 Gbps over distances up to 7km. For more information visit www.fsona.com or www.free-space-optics.org

Further Information
For more information about fSONA, SONAbeam or Free-Space Optical Wireless, please contact:

604-273-6333
media@fsona.com

fSONA and SONAbeam® are trademarks of fSONA Networks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.