Ariel Signs Distributor Agreement with Abroad Technologies
Early last week, Ariel Corp. signed an exclusive distribution contract with Abroad Technologies, a distributor of voice, data and video convergence solutions in South America. Per the agreement, Abroad will utilize a network of resellers to offer Ariel’s high-density RS4200 V.90/ISDN PCI network access cards to ISPs throughout Brazil. Abroad is expected to purchase up to 120,000 ports from Ariel over the next two years. According to IDG reports, there were over 800 ISPs and 4.2 million Internet users in Brazil in 2000.
“Abroad targets emerging international markets and countries like Brazil and South Africa that need advanced communications to enable them to compete effectively in today’s global markets,” notes Alan Ainsworth, president of Abroad Technologies. “We chose Ariel’s products as the most cost-effective way to build scalable dial-up access systems today and, more importantly, have the ability to support voice and fax communications over the Internet in the future.”
The RS4200 is a PCI-based multi-service access card set that gives ISPs and OEMs targeting ISPs an out-of-the-box solution for adding high-density remote access to Linux and Windows NT systems. Combining four E1/PRI interfaces with up to 120 ports of V.90 and Basic Rate ISDN remote access, the RS4200 transforms Windows NT and Linux systems into full-featured remote access systems, complete with remote dial-in and LAN dial-out.
Ariel will make the RS4200 available in 30-, 60-, 90- and 120-port versions that are optimized for use with Brazil’s channelized E1 networks. Ariel will also customize the RS4200 to support ITU-T R2 signaling, an international standard for communicating with central office trunks that is common to channelized E1 networks. R2 signaling has over 30 known variants. Ariel will equip the RS4200 to support the ITU-T R2 recommendations (Q.400-Q.480) used in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Hong Kong and South Africa, as well as Brazil’s country-specific variant.