51 Degrees to Deliver Gigabit Ethernet over Fibre to London Businesses with Cisco Technology.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2002

Combines Utility Infrastructure and Cisco Metro Ethernet 

Switching Portfolio to Deliver Flexible Bandwidth and Services

Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, and 51 Degrees, the telecoms infrastructure business recently set up by London Electricity Group (LE Group), announced that they will co-operate to drive forward the market for Ethernet services in London. 51 Degrees and Cisco will work together to develop London-based Ethernet solutions that can be marketed via Cisco's existing channel infrastructure. 51 Degrees will implement Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching portfolio to deliver Gigabit Ethernet over Fibre to business customers in the London area. This service will provide customers with a flexible next-generation broadband service that can scale from 10Mbps up to Gigabit Ethernet and beyond.

51 Degrees has laid a fibre optic ring network around London and will take advantage of its relationship with LE Group to provide fibre links in the "last mile" to business customers and carriers. Combining this widespread fibre infrastructure with Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching solutions will help enable 51 Degrees to deliver "Ethernet to the Building" solutions using a Metropolitan Area Network in London. 51 Degrees can offer customers exceptional access opportunities through LE Group's 30,000kms of electricity network infrastructure in, around and under London. Access to this network of ducts will help 51 Degrees in laying direct last mile fibre links to its customers.

"Providing Ethernet-based connectivity over optical fibre means that the standard for business connectivity on London now starts at 10 Mbps," commented Cliff Walton, managing director of 51 Degrees. "Ethernet is well understood within the enterprise business community as the de facto standard for internal desktop connectivity, and it makes perfect sense to extend that infrastructure for connections to the outside world. Cisco is the leading supplier of Ethernet network equipment and is a natural partner for 51 Degrees."

Using Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching portfolio will help allow 51 Degrees to effectively manage the capacity supplied to customers through software without the need for "forklift upgrades" required to upgrade voice networks. Combining Metro Ethernet with Metro IP will help provide network resilience and provide a platform for delivering services such as IP telephony, e-learning, IP video surveillance, and video broadcast between customer sites.

"51 Degrees is developing a service to address the `bandwidth gap' issue faced by most London companies -- no other entrant has 51 Degrees' ability to build access infrastructure in the London area," commented Nigel Moulton, director NSP and Metro Ethernet, EMEA for Cisco. "Whilst enterprises benefit from high-speed LAN connectivity internally, and service providers traditionally have over-capacity in the core, the access network forms a bottleneck. Ethernet and fibre provides an attractive offer to end customers to address this issue."

With access to 17,000 secure and managed properties around London, 51 Degrees has access to suitable locations to host Points of Presence (PoPs) for its IP-based fibre network. It will deploy Cisco's Catalyst 7600 platform to act as PoPs for the aggregation of Gigabit Ethernet connections from customers around London, together with the Cisco ONT 1031 Optical Network Termination device or Cisco Catalyst 3550 platform at customer sites.

"Cisco has a proven track record of working with service providers, utility companies and local authorities in Europe to help deliver Ethernet-based connectivity in the first mile," concluded Cliff Walton of 51 Degrees. "Collaborating with Cisco will help accelerate the roll out of these services to SMBs, enterprises and carriers around London and provide 51 Degrees with valuable expertise in the marketing and tendering of tailored broadband Ethernet solutions to potential customers."

About 51 Degrees

51 Degrees offers managed bandwidth, dark fibre, and ethernet services in the London area. Services will be offered to telecommunications companies, as well as systems integrators and other organisations with similar London requirements. 51 Degrees can provide exceptional access to the London local loop, thanks to the 30,000km of existing infrastructure that supports LE Group's electricity networks across the capital. Furthermore, 51 Degrees access to LE Group's property portfolio of 17,000 sites presents customers with co-location opportunities for telecoms equipment, as well as the siting of cellsites for existing and developing mobile network coverage requirements. 51 Degrees is a wholly owned subsidiary of London Electricity Group (LE Group). LE Group is an EDF company.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Note to Editors: Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, Cisco IOS are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

In the company name 51 Degrees, the word "Degrees" should be a degree symbol.