Aberdeen Report Says New, Smaller Equipment Providers Best Suited to Meet Carriers' Needs For Next Generation Optical Systems; Tellium Identified as A Market Leader.

Business/Technology Editors

OCEANPORT, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2001

In a report issued today, Aberdeen Group, a leading IT market analysis and positioning firm located in Boston, says that new, smaller equipment providers are best suited to meet carriers needs for next generation optical systems. The report, "Shining the Light on Intelligent Optical Networking," strongly positions Tellium as one of the new, emerging market leaders in the newly defined Intelligent Optical Networking (ION) market.

"While the optical networking industry has been perceived to be in a serious downward spiral, our research shows that the market has in fact shifted into next-generation systems that are not offered by the traditional networking giants," said Andrew McCormick, senior analyst, optical communications at Aberdeen. "Redefining the industry in terms of next-generation platforms allows us to identify a vibrant demand-side market of intelligent optical equipment."

The report focuses on the recent shift in the marketplace from traditional telecommunication vendors to next-generation optical suppliers that directly address carrier needs to reduce capital expenditures. The report also points out that Tellium is currently the only vendor offering core grooming at the OC-48 level, with its Aurora(TM) family of optical switches offering carriers needed features such as auto-topology discovery and "point and click" provisioning of optical circuits. Today, these features only exist on optical switches that have electrical switch fabrics.

"Tellium has always believed that the core of the network will evolve into a combination of transparent and opaque switches, with currently available optical-electrical-optical (OEO) switches continuing to be used for grooming and intelligence," said Harry Carr, Tellium's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are pleased that today's Aberdeen report validates our belief and recognizes our leadership position in the industry."

In interviewing a variety of service providers, Aberdeen's research shows that they focus on four key criteria for selecting suppliers. In order of importance, they are price, availability, technology and support. Interoperability was also identified as important selection criteria, and the report points out that Tellium offers an open systems switch for core networking applications which Aberdeen views positively. Its OC-48 switch fabric is designed to scale beyond the 512 ports it currently offers and uses existing CMOS semiconductor fabrication processes.

As OC-192 becomes the de facto wavelength standard in the core, the report mentions that Tellium's OC-48 fabric could be considered as having sub-wavelength grooming functionality. The company is also developing the Aurora Full Spectrum(TM) all-optical switch that will offer carriers the ability to support both pure wavelength routing and circuit switching.

About Tellium

Tellium delivers high-speed, high-capacity, intelligent core optical solutions, that empower service providers around the world to create, run, control and optimize their networks. First in the world to provide in-service, intelligent optical switches, Tellium's Aurora Optical Switch(TM) family and the StarNet Software Suite(TM) together offer service providers a simple and cost-effective migration path to next-generation public networks. More information is available at www.tellium.com.

Tellium(R)...smarter, faster optical networks.(TM)

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions of the Company that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof. Forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business that could cause actual results to vary materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic, customer, key employee, competitive, technological and vendor factors affecting the Company's growth, operations, markets, products, services and other factors and other risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the "Risk Factors" section of the Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed on July 24, 2001. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company's current expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate", "believe", "could", "estimate", "intend", "may", "should", "will", "would", "projects", "expects", "plans", or other similar words. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Tellium, the Tellium logo, "Smarter, Faster Optical Networks", "a Brilliant Reality", Aurora, Aurora 32, Aurora Optical Switch, Aurora 128, Aurora Full-Spectrum, StarNet Software Suite, StarNet Operating System, StarNet OS, StarNet Wavelength Management System, StarNet WMS, StarNet Planner, StarNet Modeler, StarNet Design Tools and others are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tellium, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks are the properties of their respective owners.