ACCESS, OKI and OKI ACCESS Technologies Jointly Develop Industry’s First Commercial IMS Solution

NetFront™ IMS Client Package and NetFront Media Player Set to Assume Leadership Position in the Rapidly Expanding Global IMS Market

TOKYO, Japan, - December 6, 2006 - ACCESS CO., LTD. (TSE:4813), Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE:6703) and OKI ACCESS Technologies Co., Ltd. announced that they have jointly developed NetFront IMS Client Package, an advanced IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)*1 solution designed to support multimedia services including browsing, messaging, voice and video. The solution, which features technologies from ACCESS (NetFront), OKI (eSound™*2, eVideo™*3), and OKI ACCESS Technologies (IMS IP multimedia subsystem), will also be available as part of ACCESS’ NetFront Mobile Client Suite, a software suite solution for 3G mobile handsets. ACCESS has recently announced that SoftBank Mobile Corporation has selected the NetFront IMS Client Package solution for deployment in its mobile handsets.

The NetFront IMS Client Package realizes multimedia communication services based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a protocol for controlling voice calls delivered on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The NetFront IMS Client Package is based on Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)-defined specifications for mobile systems. The IMS market is rapidly expanding as IP services extending to mobile terminals compete with the emergence of full broadband Next Generation Network (NGN*4). Compared to other IMS-related products, which were previously limited to software packages used in relatively small areas, the NetFront IMS Client Package provides the industry’s first viable commercial IMS solution.

Because the NetFront IMS Client Package is tightly integrated with NetFront’s architecture, it not only offers high portability while substantially reducing porting costs and development times, it can also be easily and flexibly combined with browser and messaging applications. In addition to a module designed to readily build a Presence function for recognizing the status of communication targets in real-time and pre-selecting suitable means of communication, the NetFront IMS Client Package consists of a wide variety of the latest modules, including a Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC) module for transceiver-like functionality allowing the caller to speak simultaneously to more than one other caller and a module supporting Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) services that integrates mobile phones with PC Internet and consumer electronics. All of these functions feature a user-friendly Application Program Interface (API) and allow customers to efficiently develop their own IMS applications.

The NetFront Media Player provides high-quality audio and visual media using eVideo technology and integrates tightly with the NetFront IMS Client Package. The NetFront Media Player provides access to a wide range of application services, including Media Player as well as audio and visual media processing applications in IMS applications. In addition to mobile phones and other miniature terminals supporting MPEG4, MP3 and other standards, the NetFront Media Player supports H.264 — the latest video codec for high-image-quality pictures — as well as Windows Media® Audio/Video 9 and Windows Media DRM 10.

The NetFront Media Player also supports Japan’s digital terrestrial broadcasting services assigned to mobile terminals and the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). With its ability to support various streaming and local playback services, including video on-demand and broadcasting, on a single media player, the NetFront Media Player represents a total multimedia solution for mobile phones.

Through its framework for NGN, OKI plans to provide attractive IMS solutions in combination with IMS-enabled servers such as the SipAs™ on WebLogic server and the carrier grade communication server CenterStage™ NX5000 series, which will provide ubiquitous carrier services.

"The high-potential IMS market and the FMC market, where mobile and fixed communications merge, are driving the future of next-generation mobile equipment,” said Toru Arakawa, ACCESS CEO, president and co-founder. “ACCESS, along with OKI and OKI ACCESS Technologies, is actively developing solutions for the creation of applications that benefit from a ‘triple play’ merger of data, voice, and video on next-generation mobile terminals.”

“Recently, we are finding new IMS solutions that merge the mobile environment with the voice and video communications environment, and are very pleased to be the fastest in the world at developing advanced terminal software suite products designed to reduce development costs and improve development speed and quality,” said OKI ACCESS Technologies’ president Osamu Nakazawa, “In the future, we will combine these products with ACCESS’ NetFront series products to offer new solutions that merge the world of the Web with the IMS world.”

“OKI aims to be a key player in the ‘e-society’ by promoting Ubiquitous Services where ACCESS is a vital partner,” said OKI’s president and CEO Katsumasa Shinozuka. “ACCESS’ and OKI ACCESS Technologies’ attractive IMS solutions utilize both our advanced IP phones and video communications systems and ACCESS’ NetFront browser. Moving forward, we will expand the parameters of the IMS framework further, provide richer IMS functions, and improve VoIP links with the eVideo media player and eSound while working to achieve newer solutions more quickly.”

OKI ACCESS Technologies is a joint venture established by ACCESS and OKI in November 2005 focused on providing solutions for mobile and networked consumer electronics.

Notes
1: IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem)
A technology for realizing new services that merge the Internet with mobile phones. The specifications were jointly established by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an organization for standardizing the Internet and the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a body that standardizes mobile phones. IMS can provide real-time and multimedia communication services such as Presence, PoC, and instant messaging.

2:eSound
eSound is OKI’s high-quality VoIP technology that enables voice communication over IP networks with realistic voice tones that are far superior to conventional phone quality.

3:eVideo
eVideo is OKI’s video codec technology for video communication and high-speed, high-quality, and low latency recording and replaying over IP networks. The codec is compliant with MPEG-4 and H.264, the video codec method established by ISO/ITU.

4: NGN (Next-Generation Network)
NGN refers to the IP technology-based next-generation networks of communications providers. International standardization of these networks is being promoted by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). In Japan, a movement focused on building communications providers’ next-generation networks is gaining momentum. In addition to conventional fixed and mobile phone services, because high-quality video transmissions, video phones, high-reliability communications services for corporations, as well as other services, can now be provided over a single IP network, communications providers can easily supply such new services as “triple play” services merging voice, data, and video, as well as Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) services merging fixed and wireless communications. By publicly releasing API’s used in building NGN applications, third parties can supply their own services using NGN functions.

About ACCESS CO., LTD.
ACCESS CO., LTD., is a global company providing leading technology, software products and platforms for web browsing, mobile phones, wireless handhelds and other networked devices. ACCESS’ product portfolio, including its NetFront browser, Palm OS® and the ACCESS Linux Platform provide customers with solutions that enable faster time-to-market, flexibility and customizability. The Company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operates 29 subsidiaries and affiliates within Asia, Europe and the United States. ACCESS is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Index under the number 4813. For more information about ACCESS, please visit http://www.access-company.com/

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan’s first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. OKI provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses function as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit OKI’s global web site at http://www.oki.com/.

About OKI ACCESS Technologies Co., Ltd.
OKI ACCESS was established in November 2005 as a joint company between Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd, and ACCESS Co., Ltd. With approximately 20 employees, OKI ACCESS is focused on developing voice and video media package products for next-generation mobile terminals.
http://www.oki-access.com


- ACCESS and NetFront are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in Japan and other countries.
- Oki ACCESS Technologies’ logo is the trademark or registered trademark of Oki ACCESS Technologies Co., Ltd. In Japan and other countries.
- The software of this product partially incorporates the eSound or eVideo
- eSound, eVideo, ipAs and CenterStage are trademarks of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. in Japan.
- All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Information

Naomi Takeuchi

Europe and Americas

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

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