Northern Telecom Ltd and Motorola Inc have been granted US federal government approval to manufacture and market the Meridian Secure Telephone Unit III, an encryption telephone that offers US government-approved security and one-button feature access. The Meridian STU III can be used in clear or secure modes. When in the clear mode, it offers one-button access to voice features most commonly found in standard business telephones. These features, including conference, speed call, call transfer ring again and call forward, are available from five dedicated feature access keys at the bottom of the set. Sixteen user-programmable dial keys allow one-touch access to frequently dialled numbers. In secure mode, standard voice or data transmissions are encrypted so that any attempt to intercept transmission would yield only a stream of undecipherable garbage. The Meridian STU III’s internal 2,400Kbps modem enables syn chronous data transmission at that speed, and asynchronous transmission at 300Kbps and 1,200Kbps as well. An RS-232 connector on the Meridian STU III can be connected to facsimile devices to enable secure facsimile transmission. The switch uses a standard single-line interface card and is compatible with all of the Canadian company’s Meridian SL and DMS family switching systems. A 16 character by two line liquid crystal diode display shows the mode of operation and provides call progress information. In the secure mode, the display provides the identification of this distant terminal and the call classification level. The STU III will be marketed by Motorola and will be available in the fourth quarter for US government departments and agencies, and qualified US government contractors.
