Zoom Faxmodems to Offer Speeds up to 56 Kbps
Dramatic modem speed increase for connections to Internet, corporate LANs

Boston, MA, September 13, 1996 - Zoom Telephonics, a leading producer of faxmodems, announced today that it is planning to produce 56,000 bps modems based on new communications technology from Rockwell Semiconductor Systems. Zoom's customers will be able to use standard analog phone lines like those normally found in homes and offices to achieve speeds up to 56,000 bps when calling central site equipment using Rockwell technology. Central site equipment is typically used to provide access to the Internet and on-line services as well as corporate networks. The central site equipment would be connected to digital T1 or ISDN lines. Modem users without the new Rockwell technology would connect to the central site at normal speeds, typically 33,600 bps or less.

"Zoom is ideally positioned to benefit from this new technology," said Frank Manning, Zoom's President. "Zoom is one of the few companies in the world whose modems all use Rockwell chips, and we have the most retail shelf space of any Rockwell customer in North America. We also have substantial sales of packaged faxmodems outside of North America, and significant sales worldwide of faxmodems built into personal computers by Zoom's OEM customers. We have a strong track record of executing designs based on Rockwell technology, and we know how to deliver high performance at an attractive price."

"Zoom is also making a major push toward sale of remote access equipment for local area networks, where this technology will obviously provide benefits and drive sales."

"We think that this technology will be very important to Zoom's customers, particularly considering the strong market share enjoyed by Rockwell for central site and single-user modems. Our market information indicates that Rockwell technology is currently used by major central site equipment manufacturers Ascend, 3Com, Shiva, and Microcom. Since standards have not been set for 56,000 bps, Rockwell's ability to proliferate its technology will be important in the battle to create a de facto standard."

Zoom's fastest modems currently run at 33,600 bps, and soon Zoom will be shipping ISDN modems with speeds of 128,000 bps. Zoom expects the vast majority of industry shipments in 1996 and early 1997 will be 33,600 bps modems. Zoom also expects its ISDN volume to ramp quickly because ISDN is a standards-based way to get 128,000 bps of bi-directional data with very rapid call setup. It is likely that the new 56,000 bps technology will reach high volume in the second half of 1997, when it will co-exist with ISDN and slower analog modems.

Zoom Telephonics designs, produces, and markets products that link people and their personal computers through the world's largest network, the international telephone network, and connected networks including the Internet and corporate local area networks. Zoom Telephonics is publicly traded on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: ZOOM). The Zoom Internet Web Site is www.zoomtel.com