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FirstHand Technologies Announces Mobile Unified Communication Solution for SIP IP PBX
Manufacturers, VARs

 Enterprise Mobility Solution UC Delivers Seamless Mobility, Advanced Features & Broad Device Support

BOSTON-VON Fall Conference-- Oct. 29, 2007 – FirstHand Technologies, an innovator in transforming smart cellular phones and dual-mode WiFi/Cellular phones into full-featured business communications devices, today announced its Enterprise Mobility Solution UC (unified communications) product release, which is designed to work with solutions from IP PBX manufacturers and  VARs supporting standard SIP interfaces. Building on the widely deployed FirstHand Enterprise Mobility Solution under agreements with Nortel, NEC, and others; the Enterprise Mobility Solution UC delivers an unprecedented feature set in enterprise mobile communications.

IP PBX manufacturers, hosted VoIP providers and VARs supporting SIP interfaces can now rapidly deploy the industry’s most powerful fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution supporting a comprehensive unified mobility and unified communications feature set over a wide range of popular cellular and WiFi/Cellular dual-mode devices, including RIM Blackberry, Win Mobile 5 & 6 and Nokia E-series. The solution provides executives, road and corridor warriors with features that include: single number reach, visual voice mail, enterprise dialing, session mobility, corporate directory access, IM, Presence, rapid conferencing, and seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular networks with automated wifi to cellular and back handover and much more.

“With this announcement, FirstHand Technologies has expanded its lead in providing enterprise communications everywhere,” said David Hattey, president and CEO, FirstHand Technologies. “This is a fantastic opportunity for all SIP IP PBX manufacturers and VARs to take advantage of the features and benefits offered by the FirstHand Enterprise Mobility Solution UC. The solution empowers enterprise customers with greater productivity and allows them to optimize and streamline their business and key decision making processes.”

The software solution consists of a server-side Mobility Gateway UC that runs on any Linux-server or appliance and the Mobile Console UC, a specialized client for RIM Blackberry, Win Mobile and Nokia devices that provides a uniform, seamless and compelling mobile user experience across mobile platforms. The solution provides end-to-end security and policy-based mobility and feature access controls ensuring simple, turnkey deployment. With standards-based interfaces such as SIP/SIMPLE for IP PBX and presence systems, LDAP for directories and IMAP for Microsoft Exchange and voice mail systems; the Enterprise Mobility Solution UC readily integrates into existing enterprise infrastructures.

Channel Partners in Place

“Partnering with FirstHand Technologies is a key step in the evolution of our VoIP and unified communications roadmap, where the revolutionary functionality of the Pingtel SIPxchange ECS will be extended out to road warriors, executives and others in need of a feature-rich mobile extension,” said Martin Steinmann, VP of product management, Bluesocket. “Our customers will be able to enjoy PBX feature transparency, including single number reach and one voice mailbox, all within an open, plug-and-play VoIP architecture.”

FirstHand is partnering with Sylantro Systems to offer this solution to both service providers and enterprise organizations and is currently in trials with end customers. “As the leading provider of multiplay application feature servers for converged services, Sylantro Systems offers a range of solutions to our customers,” said Frank Salm, VP of new markets, Sylantro Systems. “New mobile use case scenarios are emerging as a result of converging networks and the Enterprise Mobility Solution UC from FirstHand Technologies is a great fit for these customers.”

“Our business customers have been demanding access to their VoIP services from anywhere using their mobile devices,“ said Stephan Monette, president of Unlimitel Inc. “We are excited to partner with FirstHand Technologies to deliver advanced mobility services to both our Hosted and Asterisk-PBX based CPE business customers – who are served through our extensive network of resellers.”

Enterprise Mobility Solution UC is available immediately to SIP IP PBX manufacturers and VARs. Interested parties should contact sales@firsthandtech.com for more information on pricing options.

About FirstHand Technologies (www.firsthandtech.com)
FirstHand Technologies mobilizes the enterprise by extending the functionality of numerous IP PBXs to a variety of smartphones and dual-mode devices. FirstHand Technologies empowers an enterprise’s workforce to go mobile with the same functionality as their office desktop. The FirstHand Technologies advanced fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution delivers enterprise features and “single number” seamless connectivity over cellular networks and/or WiFi enabling organizations to achieve “enterprise communications everywhere.” The enterprise benefits from faster communication abilities, increased productivity and significant cost savings. For more information, please visit www.firsthandtech.com.

FirstHand Technologies is a registered trademark of FirstHand Technologies. All other trademarks, trade names and company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective companies.

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Media Contact:

Elyse Familant
George Cohen Communications
978-725-3637
elysef@gccpr.com