January 22, 2004, Irving, Texas -- NEC America, Inc. (NEC), one of the top three providers overall for customer premise communications (CPE) systems in North America, today announced that it has taken the #1 market share position in CPE line shipments for both the Converged Systems and Key/Hybrid Systems categories, according to InfoTech, a firm that tracks the enterprise communications market.

According to InfoTech’s December report entitled, “InfoTrack for Enterprise Communications, Third Quarter 2003,” NEC achieved 22.3% market share in the converged systems segment of the IP-PBX market and 18.9% market share in the Key/Hybrid systems market. InfoTech defines converged systems as hybrid TDM/IP platforms that allow end users to deploy a mix of IP, digital, and analog phones.

The report also names NEC as one of only two industry vendors to record positive year-over-year gains in CPE line shipments, with an impressive 31% increase over the third quarter of 2002. NEC was also listed as the third largest provider of overall lines shipped, a solid indication that NEC is taking market share from its competitors.

NEC’s converged communication platforms, the NEAX® 2000 IPS and NEAX 2400 IPX, made significant strides in the IP-PBX market throughout 2003. Sales of NEC’s two new key telephone systems (KTS), the Electra Elite® IPK and Aspire™, were extremely popular among small- to medium-sized businesses.

“NEC has made rapid progress with its converged platforms over the past few quarters,” said Frank Stinson, of InfoTech. “This type of positive momentum positions NEC well to benefit from anticipated market growth in 2004, as more businesses begin deploying a mix of TDM and IP telephony across the enterprise.”

“The NEC strategy to offer customers a choice of traditional PBX lines, IP lines or any combination of the two has resonated with the market,” said Mike Rosen, general manager, NEC America’s Marketing and Sales Support Division. “We are thrilled that the efforts of our employees and dealers have earned us the top place in this survey.”