ORLANDO, Fla. -- PowerDsine(R), the leading provider of Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology, today announced that it has certified its twenty-fifth IP phone vendor for interoperability with the IEEE 802.3af PoE standard. This milestone further illustrates PowerDsine's leadership in PoE technology and the company's success in driving IEEE 802.3af-based certification for new Voice over IP (VoIP) phones worldwide.

According to IDC research last November, worldwide IP telephone unit sales are set to grow from 1.5 million in 2003 to nearly 5 million in 2007. With IP phone sales expected to explode over the next few years, PowerDsine's PoE technology and certification program will play an instrumental role as PoE promises to save companies as much as 50% on the cost of deploying each end-user device.

"PowerDsine co-founded the IEEE 802.3af Task Force and has held its leadership position in the Power over Ethernet market by helping vendors build and certify PoE-enabled IP phones, wireless LAN access points, Bluetooth access points, network cameras and other Ethernet-connected devices," said PowerDsine CEO and co-founder, Igal Rotem. "Our certification program invites any equipment vendor to partner with us, so ultimately end users can choose from a wide variety of interoperable 802.3af-compliant products."

PowerDsine Ltd.