12/16/05 - Airspan Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: AIRN) a provider of broadband wireless access networks, including WiMAX standard systems, and carrier class VoIP systems, announced that it has successfully completed a live demonstration of its AS.MAX WiMAX solution in Sri Lanka.

At an event hosted by Intel in Colombo, where Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairman -- Intel Corporation, delivered a keynote address on "Digital Inclusion" (how Sri Lanka can capitalize on the digital evolution), the power of digital connectivity was demonstrated when Mr. Barrett made a video call over multiple WiMAX links to the Mayor of Galle, a southern port city of Sri Lanka. The call was carried using Airspan's MacroMAX base-station platform and the nationwide wireless backbone network operated by MTT Network (Pvt.) Limited.

An Airspan EasyST, the world's first indoor, self-installable WiMAX customer premise device, was used on top of the perimeter wall of the Galle's historical Dutch Fort to connect to an Airspan MacroMAX base station site located 2.5 km away on the other side of the Galle Bay. A second MacroMAX base station in Colombo was connected to the first via MTT's SDH/PDH wireless back-bone. The delivery of the video call at the site of Mr. Barrett's speech was achieved via a link between an Airspan ProST and the Colombo MacroMAX. Airspan was thus successfully able to demonstrate a two-way video call to a location where no other communications technology existed to provide the connectivity.

Mr. Henrik Smith-Petersen, President of Asia for Airspan, said: "We are very pleased that our technology was used to provide this demonstration. The success of event showed how our WiMAX technologies can be used in a seamless manner to provide a combination of video and VoIP services. We have developed an unparalleled product portfolio and skill-set for wireless deployments, which will bring significant value to operators in countries like Sri Lanka, where broadband wireless digital connectivity continues to grow."

Airspan's AS.MAX product family has been designed for indoor, self-installable deployment of customer premises equipment, an essential requirement of operators for the economic rollout of broadband wireless. The EasyST is the first product of its type to fully enable indoor plug-and-play WiMAX services. The product family became commercially available in the third quarter of 2005. The products give businesses and consumers uninterrupted access to a rich variety of high bandwidth applications such as networked gaming, streamed digital music, TV, videoconferencing, and other real-time services at speeds faster than today's 3G networks. Fixed WiMAX is expected to deliver end-user data rates greater than 1 Mbps -- 3 to 5 times faster than today's commercial 3G networks.