UTStarcom Announces Plans for Partnership with Korea's DASAN Networks

HONG KONG, March 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- UTStarcom (NASDAQ: UTSI), a global telecommunications infrastructure provider, announced plans to partner with DASAN Networks of Korea to explore ways of collaborating that will help both companies bring competitive products to market that serve the increasingly complex needs of cable TV, mobile and telecommunications carriers.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) 2014 in San Francisco last week to explore a strategic partnership through which they could collaborate on the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of telecommunications infrastructure products. It stems from both companies' desire to create products that help carriers roll out new revenue generating services quickly and efficiently while significantly reducing expenses.

The MOU envisions a platform to leverage the companies' complementary technologies: UTStarcom's flagship MPLS-TP/Carrier Ethernet-based Packet Optical Transport products and Software Defined Networking (SDN) platform, and DASAN Network's Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) broadband access products. Combining these strengths would provide a complete connectivity solution -- from network core to end users -- for carriers all over the world operating metropolitan networks.

"UTStarcom and DASAN Networks share a vision to bring together the expertise of two companies at the forefront of their respective fields of telecommunications technology," said Mr. William Wong, UTStarcom's Chief Executive Officer. "It is a sign of our intention to share resources to create a new class of optical networking products and bring them to market faster than otherwise possible, helping both companies to enhance and maintain their market leadership."

Targeting New Markets with New Products

A key objective of this collaboration is to create a platform of products that will help both UTStarcom and DASAN Networks enter new markets worldwide. The United States is one of key target markets given the desire of its incumbent carriers to offer "4G" mobile products and Internet Protocol-based services. Also, a partnership with DASAN Networks could significantly bolster UTStarcom's presence in Korea where the world's highest Internet penetration is creating greater demands on carriers' networks.

UTStarcom has already stepped up engagement with prospective customers in new markets by showcasing its products at industry renowned events. At the OFC, for example, the company exhibited its latest Packet Optical Transport products and its proprietary SOO™ (Software-defined Open Optical network) Network platform encompassing SDN controller - SOO Station, SDN APPs - SOO Store and underlying network elements, both of which would support the collaboration with DASAN as envisioned by the MOU.

Building on Past Successful Collaboration

The MOU builds on a recent successful product development effort between UTStarcom and DASAN Networks that offers a blueprint for future collaboration envisioned by the MOU. UTStarcom's OFC exhibition included the DASAN Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network, which resulted from a joint effort between the two companies. This product is already in large-scale commercial deployment worldwide, including in Japan.

"We have an established relationship and prior track record that bodes well for the discussions we will have with DASAN as a result of this MOU," said Mr. William Wong. "We look forward to updating our investors and customers as we explore a definitive arrangement for collaboration on technologies that will help our customers keep pace with developments and demand in their market."

About UTStarcom Holdings Corp.

UTStarcom (NASDAQ: UTSI) is a global telecom infrastructure provider dedicated to developing technology that will serve the rapidly growing demand for bandwidth from cloud-based services, mobile, streaming and other applications. We work with carriers globally, from Asia to the Americas, to meet this demand through a range of innovative broadband packet optical transport and wireless/fixed-line access products and solutions. The company's end-to-end broadband product portfolio, enhanced through in-house Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based orchestration, enables mobile and fixed-line network operators and enterprises worldwide to build highly efficient and resilient future-proof networks for a range of applications, including mobile backhaul, metro aggregation, broadband access and Wi-Fi data offload. Our strategic investments in media operational support service providers expand UTStarcom's capabilities in the field of next generation video platforms. UTStarcom was founded in 1991, started trading on NASDAQ in 2000, and has operating entities in Hong Kong, China; Tokyo, Japan; Fremont, USA; Delhi and Bangalore, India; Hangzhou, China. For more information about UTStarcom, please visit http://www.utstar.com.

SOURCE UTStarcom, Inc.