Acterna Adds FTTx/PON, Optical Loss Testers to Line of Widely Deployed Optical Handheld Field Instruments.

GERMANTOWN, Md. -- New SMART handhelds broaden product line that includes testers for FTTx/PON, DWDM, CWDM, Gigabit Ethernet and 40Gbps

Acterna, the leader in test and management solutions for consumer and business broadband communications, today announced two additions to its industry-leading optical field instruments, the SMART optical handhelds: the OLP-57 SMART FTTX/PON selective power meter and the OLT-55 SMART optical loss test set. The new handhelds are being showcased this week at CeBIT 2005 (Hall 13, B20) in Hannover, Germany and OFC/NFOEC 2005 (booth 2391) in Anaheim, California.

There are more than 70,000 previous-generation units from Acterna's optical handhelds platform currently in the field, making it one of the most widely deployed handheld test instruments in the industry. Acterna's SMART product line, offering the industry's best performance in terms of accuracy, ease-of-use, and durability includes power meters, optical attenuators, laser sources, loss test sets, and return loss meters.

The OLP-57 SMART FTTX/PON selective power meter is a high-performance power meter for testing, installing and maintaining FTTx/PON systems. It provides simultaneous measurement at all three wavelengths on the fiber (1490 nm and 1550 downstream and 1310 nm upstream). The 1310 nm channel provides correct power measurements of burst-type upstream PON signals. The OLP-57 also allows user-adjusted thresholds for easy pass/fail analysis.

The OLT-55 SMART optical loss test set is an easy-to-use universal instrument with a two or three wavelength laser source in combination with a power meter that can be used for singlemode fibers and systems in the lab, manufacturing (USB interface), installation, maintenance and troubleshooting. It creates a new industry standard with the industry's first built-in auto-zeroing function, providing outstanding accuracy even for very low power levels or high loss measurements (patent-pending). In addition, the OLT-55 can be used as a power meter or laser source with all features of the corresponding OLS-55 and OLP-55 handheld testers.

"Our two new SMART products, the OLP-57 and OLT-55, maintain our aggressive strategy to provide the market with universal handheld tools that are utilized throughout the network lifecycle - from the lab to the deployment and maintenance of optical networks and systems," said Enzo di Luigi, general manager for Acterna's Fiber Optics and Systems. "These and all of Acterna's SMART optical handhelds are developed to be future-proof but also to meet our customers' requirements today."

The new SMART handhelds consolidate Acterna's well-known optical handheld testers and offer multiple industry firsts, including: a USB interface, allowing for remote control as well as easy report generation and analysis via laptop/desktop; potentially substantial calibration cost savings (a three year calibration interval is recommended); and a unique power supply management system that uses either standard dry or rechargeable batteries, offers both fast charging times and the longest battery lifetime in its class, and can be charged using any 12-volt power source - including a vehicle cigarette lighter.

Acterna's SMART optical handhelds offer a variety of additional features that set them apart from all other optical handheld devices in their class, including: an extended number of calibration wavelengths that provide the highest performance range in the industry; the industry's most rugged design; the SMARTStar graphical user interface (GUI) for fast, easy and straightforward operation; traceable measurements to international standards for confidence in accuracy; quick-start operation (no warm up required, thus decreasing testing times); and TWINtest and TRIPLEtest (simultaneous measurements at either two or three wavelengths, which significantly decreases testing times).

About Acterna's SMART Optical Handheld Testers

Anticipating the present and future requirements of the optical handheld market, Acterna's new line of SMART optical handhelds are designed for industry trends. They are a powerful, low-cost solution for FTTx/PON, DWDM, CWDM, 40Gbps, Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet applications (both multimode and singlemode). The new SMART optical handhelds maintain all existing functions of today's high performance Acterna optical handhelds and are identified by simple product names: OLA (variable optical attenuator), OLP (optical power meter), OLS (optical light source), OLT (optical loss test set), OMK (optical measurement kit), and ORL (optical return loss meter).

About Acterna

Acterna is the world's largest provider of communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators. A trusted communications test partner for more than eight decades, Acterna offers an unmatched portfolio of award-winning instruments, systems, software and services that help its customers reduce network costs while improving performance and reliability. Headquartered in Germantown, Maryland, USA - with European and Asia-Pacific operations based in Eningen, Germany and Hong Kong - Acterna serves nearly every major communications service provider and equipment manufacturer around the world through a skilled sales and support organization in 31 countries.

All Acterna company or product names mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of Acterna Inc. or one of its subsidiary companies.