Liquid Investments Leverages Novatel Wireless PC Cards to Win QUALCOMM 3G A-List(TM) Award

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 05, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Novatel Wireless (NASDAQ:NVTL) congratulates Liquid Investments for being honored as a 3G A-List Award winner. Now in its third year, the QUALCOMM-sponsored awards program is designed to recognize innovative and successful commercially deployed enterprise wireless data solutions based on third-generation (3G) CDMA standards.

During CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 in San Francisco, Liquid Investments received the 3G A-List Award in the medium-sized business category for its rollout of 3G PC Data Cards from Novatel Wireless to its entire sales force.

Liquid Investments has equipped its 120-person sales team with Sprint CDMA 1xRTT PCMCIA cards from Novatel Wireless for use on Fujitsu tablet computers. This solution allows sales representatives to be truly mobile, receiving databases and sending orders from the field. Sales account managers have remote access to order history, pricing and accounts receivable and can fulfill a multitude of customer requests for product, displays, point-of-sale material and pricing information. Account managers also receive daily updates on pay-for-performance goals. The solution has given the sales team the ability to increase their customer contact and make more sales calls throughout the day.

"We are honored to receive such a prestigious award from QUALCOMM and look forward to working with our partners to increase the productivity of our staff though the use of 3G technology," said Eric Mining, director of information technology at Liquid Investments. "We estimate that implementing this project on the Sprint network with Novatel Wireless cards has resulted in a six to seven percent productivity gain for each rep in our sales force. Being mobile allows the account managers to save approximately 30 minutes per day, for a total sales force savings of more than 16,000 hours per year. That equates to a savings of more than $36,000 every month."

"QUALCOMM congratulates Novatel Wireless and Liquid Investments, along with the other recipients of this year's 3G A-List Awards, for their collaboration in the successful deployment of PC Data Cards," said Kristin Taylor, director of enterprise business development for QUALCOMM. "Through Novatel Wireless, Liquid Investments was able to integrate the business benefits of 3G to create an innovative solution that demonstrated increased productivity and ROI and redefined how mobility can enable businesses."

The annual 3G A-List Awards, formerly the 3G cdmA-List Awards, honor outstanding wireless implementations that demonstrate creativity and innovation, overall business impact and how the winning company or organization exceeded business objectives by introducing higher return on investment, lower operating expenses or increased user satisfaction. More information about the 2005 3G A-List Awards honorees and their innovative solutions can be found at: http://www.3galist.com/winners.html.

ABOUT LIQUID INVESTMENTS

Liquid Investments owns four distributorships throughout California and Colorado: Mesa Distributing in San Diego, Mesa Beverage companies in Sacramento and Santa Rosa, Calif., and two Colorado Beverage Distributing operations in Colorado. The family of companies distributes more than 18 million cases of imported and domestic beers, as well as a variety of non-alcoholic brands per year.

ABOUT NOVATEL WIRELESS, INC.

Novatel Wireless is a leading provider of wireless broadband access solutions. Novatel Wireless' Merlin(TM) PC Cards, Expedite(TM) Embedded Modems, Freedom Box(TM) Ruggedized Modems, MobiLink(TM) Communications Software Suite, Ovation(TM) 3G Multimedia Application Consoles and Conversa(TM) Software Suite enable high-speed wireless access to personal, corporate and public information. The company delivers innovative 3G solutions to operators, distributors and vertical markets worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, Novatel Wireless is listed on NASDAQ (NVTL). For more information on Novatel Wireless, visit www.novatelwireless.com. (nvtlg)

(C) 2005 Novatel Wireless. All rights reserved. The Novatel Wireless logo, Merlin, Expedite, Expedite EV620, Freedom Box, MobiLink, Ovation and Conversa are trademarks of Novatel Wireless, Inc. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

QUALCOMM is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. 3G A-List Awards is a trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA USA). All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This release may contain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended to date. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained herein. These factors include risks relating to technological changes, new product introductions, continued acceptance of Novatel Wireless' products and dependence on intellectual property rights. These factors, as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, are discussed in more detail in Novatel Wireless' filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (available at www.sec.gov) and other regulatory agencies.

SOURCE: Novatel Wireless, Inc.

LEWIS PR
Katie Assar/Noah Dye, 619-516-2559
[email protected]

Copyright Business Wire 2005

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