Intel Announces Support for Phoneline-based Home Networking; Becomes Founding Member of Home Phoneline Networking Alliance

HILLSBORO, Ore., June 24, 1998 – Intel Corporation today announced support for home networking solutions that will use existing telephone lines to link multiple home PCs for families that want to simultaneously access computer files and the Internet, print documents, and play computer games.

"We believe that consumers will benefit considerably from the advantages of home networking," said Dan Sweeney, business unit manager of Intel's Home Networking Operation. "We look forward to advancing this exciting new category for the benefit of consumers and the industry."

In February, Intel identified the need for home networking solutions and announced the formation of its Home Networking Operation (HNO). Its charter is to identify consumer-friendly methods of linking multiple PCs in the home. In line with this objective, Intel this week became a founding member of the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), a consortium of 11 companies that will work together to develop a specification for developers to use in generating home networking products based on phoneline technology.

According to industry research firm Dataquest there are currently more than 15 million U.S. homes with two or more personal computers, and this number is expected to grow to 35 million by the year 2000. Intel's Sweeney said that this growth in second home PC purchases will spark demand for products that will take the home PC experience to the next level of collaboration and sharing.

"Networking PCs in the home will add a new dimension to computing," Sweeney said. "It will settle the family feud over who gets to be online and who gets to watch. With only one Internet account, one family member will be able to send e-mail while another goes online for stock quotes or homework research."

A survey of multiple-PC homes in the U.S.** revealed that more than 50 percent of them would find a home networking product highly appealing and nearly 70 percent indicated that such a product would be somewhat appealing.

Twenty-seven percent of the respondents cited printer sharing as the most attractive home networking product advantage, followed closely by file (15 percent) and modem sharing (15 percent), and Internet access (13 percent).

For more information about Intel's views on home networking, visit Intel's home networking white paper on the Intel Web site at www.intel.com/anypoint.

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