Agility Communications Achieves 95 Percent Packaging Yield of Widely Tunable Lasers; Optical Laser Innovator Validates High-Yield Manufacturing Platform.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers SANTA BARBARA Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2003 Agility Communications, Inc., the award-winning manufacturer of widely tunable components for metro, switching, and long-haul markets, today announced widely tunable laser A laser that can change its frequency over a given range. In time, tunable lasers are expected to be capable of switching frequencies on a packet by packet basis. package and test yields of over 95 percent from its highly automated facility located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Optical networking Communications between computers, telephones and other electronic devices using light. An optical network is far more reliable and has far greater potential transmission capacity than networking in the electrical domain. See optical fiber. infrastructure companies use Agility's widely tunable, high-power lasers to assist communications providers to increase network capacity, maximize existing network resources, streamline the planning process for network growth, and dynamically provision bandwidth. "Our manufacturing platform and single chip architecture allow us to produce tunable lasers and EMLs extremely efficiently. This enables us to compete head to head with DFBs on a price and volume basis," said Ron Nelson, chief executive officer and president of Agility Communications. "This is an exciting time for Agility. We had a fantastic start to 2003 with regard to revenue, volumes, and yields. Our first quarter revenue exceeded our entire results for 2002, and our second quarter looks even better. Agility is in great shape, even in the worst downturn our industry has experienced in many years." Agility Leads Market; Garners Multiple Industry Firsts With this announcement, Agility further demonstrates its commitment to pioneering and delivering breakthrough solutions in optical networking infrastructure to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of providing agile networks. This announcement follows closely on the heels of a multimillion-dollar contract award by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency administered by the Department of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). (DARPA DARPA: see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) The name given to the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency during the 1980s. It was later renamed back to ARPA. ) for the use of Agility's CW widely tunable lasers. Agility recently announced the industry's first universal transponder A receiver/transmitter on a communications satellite. It receives a microwave signal from earth (uplink), amplifies it and retransmits it back to earth at a different frequency (downlink). A satellite has several transponders. , and the company was also the first widely tunable laser company to announce Telcordia qualification, in March 2002. Additionally, Agility is the first widely tunable laser company to announce a top-tier, publicly traded company publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. , Lightscape Networks, as a customer and strategic partner. With the November 2002 announcement of the 3205 widely tunable laser, Agility became the first company to announce product availability to the tunable MSA (Metropolitan Service Area) An urban area with at least 50,000 people plus surrounding counties. There are 306 MSAs and 428 RSAs (rural service areas) in the U.S. MSAs and RSAs are used to allocate cellular licenses. industry standard supported by Alcatel Optronics and Bookham Technologies. About Agility Communications, Inc. Agility Communications, Inc., the leader in pioneering widely tunable components for metro, switching, and long-haul markets, provides the lowest total cost of ownership and dramatically reduces the costs and complexity of supporting agile networks. The company has been named one of Light Reading's Top 10 Privately Held Companies privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. , won the Technologic Partners' Optix 2001 Investors' Choice award, and was listed in UPSIDE Magazine's "Hot 100" private companies for 2001. Agility has also been highlighted in several "Hot Companies to Watch" lists, including ones in Business Week and Lightwave Magazine. Founded by a team of optical networking and semiconductor veterans in October 1998, Agility is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. It is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 92,325. , and has manufacturing facilities in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Agility investors include Alliance, Amerindo Investment Advisors, CIENA Corp., Comdisco Ventures, Dell Ventures, General Bank, GM Investment Management Corp., Global Strategic, Granite Global Ventures, London Pacific Assurance Limited, Meritech Capital Partners, Mitsubishi International Corp., Morgenthaler Ventures, Mustang Ventures, Nissho Electronics Corp. (Nissho Iwai American Corp.), Siemens Venture Capital, Tellabs, U.S. Venture Partners, and Worldview world·view n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung. 1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. 2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. Technology Partners. For more information about Agility solutions, visit www.agility.com, send email to info@agility.com, or call 805/690-1700. Agility Communications and the Agility logo are trademarks of Agility Communications, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company and product names mentioned are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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