Global Support for G.hn Gains Ground as HomeGrid Forum's Asia Pacific and USA Membership Grows

BEAVERTON, OR--(Marketwire - Aug 23, 2011) -

News Highlights:

• Four New Members: Allion Test Labs, Holland Electronics LLC, Kwangwoon University, and MitraStar have joined HomeGrid Forum
• These new members demonstrate the increasing global recognition of G.hn as the single unified standard for wired home networking

The addition of these four new organizations to HomeGrid Forum's membership underscores the growing global support for G.hn, and in particular highlights HomeGrid Forum's exciting growth in the Asia-Pacific region. The new members are Taiwan-based Allion Test Labs and MitraStar, Kwangwoon University (South Korea), and Holland Electronics LLC (USA).

This announcement follows the news in July that silicon vendors Metanoia and Xingtera have also joined the move to G.hn. Over 30 other companies are now members of the HomeGrid Forum, including recent recruits such as AT&T and TRaC Global. Each member openly supports G.hn technology, with its ability to pass data at very high speeds over coaxial cable, phone lines, or power lines. Using HomeGrid Certified G.hn-enabled systems, service providers are able to deploy advanced services, including IPTV, reliably and more cost-effectively. Consumer electronics manufacturers will be able to provide HomeGrid Certified devices throughout the house for all types of entertainment, home automation, and security.

"Each member brings an exciting new perspective to the table," said John Egan, Vice President of HomeGrid Forum. "Our continuously expanding membership now encompasses every facet of expertise in the home networking environment, from research and development to manufacture, testing and deployment. Even more rewarding is the indication -- with these new members -- of the growing global acceptance and support of G.hn and HomeGrid Forum as it realizes two major milestones this year -- shipping chipsets and certifying products -- with mass market deployment of HomeGrid Forum Certified G.hn products expected early 2012."

Allion Test Labs is a global engineering service and validation consulting firm conducting certification, interoperability, performance and compatibility testing services for companies all over the world. Kitty Chou, Senior Manager of Allion, said, "As a third-party test lab, Allion works closely with many worldwide associations of industrial standards such as USB, HDMI, SATA, PCIE, Wi-Fi, and DLNA. We look forward to our experience helping Asian vendors pass the G.hn product certification in the most efficient way."

Holland Electronics is an innovator in the CATV, SMATV, Satellite, Wireless and Fiber Optic markets specializing in connectivity, broadband distribution, head-end and installation accessories. Tony Papa, President of Holland Electronics, said, "Holland Electronics is proud to be a part of such an innovative home networking technology Forum. Our long history of successful RF-based product development via coaxial networks places us in an obvious position to help develop new and efficient ways of improving the content delivery and the end user's experience through the HomeGrid Forum and use of G.hn."

Kwangwoon University was the first university to have a research institute on wireless communications and now has the largest faculty group on information technology in Korea. These days it covers many diverse areas of IT, including communications, control, signal processing, computers, networks, IT convergence, and electronic materials. Its interest in PLC technology is of particular relevance to the HomeGrid Forum.

MitraStar, formerly ZyXEL's product business unit, is a DMS (Design, Manufacturing and Service) technology company focused on advanced networking technology and products. Allen Lin, Associate VP of MitraStar said, "G.hn is a promising technology and MitraStar is committed to integrating G.hn with our products for broadband connection, home connection, and home control. As a member of the HomeGrid Forum family, we will provide G.hn products for our customers and will work with other family members' products."

About HomeGrid Forum
HomeGrid Forum is a global, non-profit trade group promoting the International Telecommunication Union's G.hn and G.hnem standardization efforts for next-generation home networking and SmartGrid Applications. HomeGrid Forum promotes adoption of G.hn and G.hnem through technical and marketing efforts, addresses certification and interoperability of G.hn and G.hnem-compliant products, and cooperates with complementary industry alliances. Its membership includes service providers, consumer electronics and information technology manufacturers, universities and other R&D groups, test houses, and component providers from around the world. For more information on HomeGrid Forum, please visit www.homegridforum.org or follow us on http://twitter.com/homegrid_forum.