Open Services Gateway Initiative Builds Momentum / 30+ Member Companies Convene in Chicago to Establish Open Standard For Delivering E-Services to Homes/Small B

SAN RAMON, Calif. (PROTEXT) - More than 30 leading technologycompanies from across the world are gathered in Chicago this weekat the first official meeting of the Open Services GatewayInitiative (www.osgi.org). OSGi is an industry group working todefine and promote an open standard for connecting the nextgeneration of smart consumer and small business appliances withcommercial Internet services. The Open Services Gatewayspecification, scheduled for release in the first quarter of2000, will provide a common foundation for Internet ServiceProviders, network operators and equipment manufacturers todeliver a wide range of e-services to gateway servers running inthe home, small business or remote/branch office. The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) is an openindustry effort announced in March 1999. OSGi has sinceformalized its by-laws and articles of incorporation, organizingitself as a non-profit corporation in the United States. To date,33 companies have joined as charter members of OSGi: Alcatel,AMD, Coactive Networks, Com21, Compaq, Deutsche Telekom, Domosys,Echelon, Electricite de France, emWare, Ericsson, France Telecom,Gatespace, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Corporation, LiberateTechnologies, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Nokia, OracleCorporation, Philips, ProSyst Software, Schneider Electric,Sharp, Siemens, STMicroelectronics, Sun Microsystems, Sybase,Telia, Tokyo Electric, Toshiba, and Whirlpool. Quotes fromcharter members are featured on the OSGi Web site (www.osgi.org). OSGi announced the election of the following representativesto its Board of Directors through June 2000: -- Dan Bandera, Business Line Manager for Client & OEMTechnology, IBM Corporation -- John Barr, Director of Internet Architecture, DigitalExperience Team, Motorola -- Colin Clifford, Director Strategic Business Development,Europe, National Semiconductor -- Robert Elliott, Director Central Electronics Systems,Whirlpool Corporation -- Robert Froehlich, Programme Manager - Customer Services &Telecom, Electricite de France -- Allyson Fryhoff, Senior Director, Mobile & EmbeddedProducts, Oracle Corporation -- Rolf Johansson, Marketing Manager, e-services, Ericsson -- Jeff Lund, Director of Marketing and Business Development,Echelon Corporation -- Robert Mines, Senior Manager, Sun Microsystems -- Ari Nieminen, Assistant Vice President, Business, Nokia -- Eric Vallet, Project Manager, Alcatel OSGi also announcedthe election of the following Officers through June 2000: -- President and Americas Regional Vice President (Acting):John Barr, Motorola -- Vice President of Marketing: Joseph Bassi, SunMicrosystems -- Europe/Middle East/Africa Vice President: MalteLilliestrale, Ericsson -- Asia Pacific Vice President: Lawrence Chan, EchelonCorporation -- Treasurer (Acting): Allyson Fryhoff, Oracle Corporation -- Secretary: Uwe Hansmann, IBM Corporation -- Executive Director: Deepak Kamlani, Interprise Ventures Through open collaboration, OSGi is creating an end-to-endservice delivery architecture to enable the home and smallbusiness market for Internet and e-commerce services such as:

* Security, alarm and safety services

* Contentservices * Energy management and metering services

* Entertainment

services * Health care and patient monitoring services * Appliance

monitoring

and repair

services * Home automation and networking services

* One-pointInternet

access "The work of OSGi is important in that it will help enable thedelivery of integrated, value-added services to end customers,from a variety of service providers over different physical layertechnologies. Today, this is not possible," said Michael Wolf,senior networking analyst, Cahners In-Stat Group, a marketresearch firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. "In addition, thework of OSGi will further promote the important concept of theresidential gateway and its role within the delivery of theseservices." "By enabling consumer electronics developers to standardizeintelligent interfaces between the LAN and the WAN, consumers aregoing to enjoy the benefits of all kinds of new applications andservices," said Kurt Scherf, analyst, In-Home Networks with ParksAssociates, a market research firm based in Dallas, Texas. "TheOSGi is bringing the power of broadband Internet services and thehome network together to deliver greater control, comfort, andconvenience to households." With Open Services Gateway, companies will be able to takeadvantage of the significant opportunities in home networking andthe convergence of computer, entertainment and Internet productsand services. OSGi offers home and small business ownersincreased value, comfort and choice of service offerings, whilecreating new business opportunities for suppliers and serviceproviders. No single company can accomplish this alone, thus OSGihas been created to develop an open standard so that serviceproviders, system developers and equipment manufacturers caneasily develop, deploy and manage these multiple e-services. "OSGi believes the networked home and small business is thenext frontier, and we're building the industry's first openinterface for connecting devices and appliances with Internetservices," said John Barr, president of OSGi, and director,Internet Architectures for Digital Experience, Motorola. "Withthe participation of 33 charter member companies and theformalizing of our organization, we're poised to deliver an open,global specification in 2000. Ultimately, consumers will be ableto select from a variety of services for their security, energymanagement and home automation needs, while being able to quicklyincorporate new information appliances into their home networkswith online support provided by manufacturers through the OpenServices Gateway platform." Services Gateway Market Explodes Industry deregulation and new technology are rapidlytransforming how players in the residential services marketdefine and manage their business. As residential telecom anddatacom services combine, homes and small offices will beequipped with "services gateways" that will function as theplatform for any communications-based services. The servicesgateway will consolidate and manage voice, data, Internet andmultimedia communications to and from the home and small office.Cahners In-Stat Group predicts the residential gateway marketwill grow from $200 million in 2000 to $2.4 billion in 2003. The OSGi specification will create an open standard for aservices gateway that bridges the external network and theinternal network. The OSGi gateway will link client devices inthe home or small office to external service providers. Thegateway will provide a central point from which services can bedeployed and managed -- all from a central operations system thatcan link enterprise billing and other existing legacyapplications to the clients internal to the gateway. OSGi E-Service Applications With the transition of traditional residential services intothe Internet Economy, the Open Services Gateway is the technologythat will enable the e- service business model. Based on thisbusiness model, consumers and small business owners will be ableto select from a multitude of convenient, communications-basedservices. For example: -- Power companies will be able to deliver energy managementand intelligent energy load management for homes and businesses.Utility providers, such as gas, water and electric companies willhave automated meters that transmit readings with no manualassistance. A small business owner could receive notification ona mobile phone that the temperature of his office had fallenbelow zero. -- Home security systems will no longer require proprietarycommunications systems. Messages could be sent to mobile phonesthe instant an alarm is triggered -- the same time the alarmcompany or police learn about it. Parents might know if theirkids returned home from school at normal time. -- Caring for an elderly parent or relative will be enhancedthrough low- cost patient monitoring devices that continuouslytransmit critical care or emergency information to hospitals,physicians or paramedics -- reducing costs and increasing safety and security. About the Open Services Gateway Specification Initially based on Java technology, the Open Services Gatewayspecification will give service providers, device makers andappliance manufacturers vendor-neutral local network to Wide AreaNetwork (WAN) connectivity interfaces. Because of the portabilityof Java technology, application programmers will be able to writean application once to run on any device or network that supportsthe specification. The specification will be composed of separatefunctional elements: Application framework and resourcemanagement; Client APIs for thin and fat WAN clients; Device APIsfor local area network; Security and integrity APIs; and Datamanagement APIs for database integration administration. The Open Services Gateway specification will be designed tocomplement and enhance virtually all residential networkingstandards and initiatives, such as Bluetooth, CAL, CEBus, emNET,HAVi, HomePNA, HomePnP, HomeRF, Jini technology, LonWorks, VESAand Convergence. In the same way, the specification will leveragethe value of existing wireline and wireless networks whileproviding flexibility toward WCDMA, xDSL, cable and other highspeed access technologies. The initial OSGi specification iscurrently in internal review by the technical committee and isscheduled for public release in 1Q2000. About OSGi The OSGi is a non-profit corporation formed to provide a forumfor the creation of open specifications for the delivery ofmultiple services over wide-area networks to local networks anddevices, and to accelerate the demand for products and servicesbased on these specifications worldwide through the sponsorshipof market and user education programs. The San Ramon, California,USA-based consortium comprises 33 member organizations fromaround the globe. Membership is open to any interested party,including Internet Service Providers, Network Operators, OriginalEquipment Manufacturers, Independent Software Vendors, end users,academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profitorganizations. The consortium's Web site address ishttp://www.osgi.org. All company, brand and product names may be trademarks thatare the sole property of their respective owners. All RightsReserved. ots Original Text Service: Open Services GatewayInitiative Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: EdithEsquenazi, Senior Account Executive, +1 972-830-2504, or email,eesquena@bsmg.com, or David Nieland, Group Manager, +1 972-830-2663, or email, dnieland@bsmg.com, both of BSMG Worldwide, forOpen Services Gateway Initiative; or Deepak Kamlani, ManagingDirector of interprise ventures, +1 925 277 8110, or email,dkamlani@inventures.com Web site: http://www.osgi.org

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