Altiga Networks Offers Trade-in Program to Nortel CES 4000 Customers; Altiga Delivers On High End VPN Claims, Surpassing Nortel's Current and Recently-Announced Offering.

FRANKLIN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 1999--

Altiga Networks, provider of the first broadband-enabled virtual private network (VPN) solution, today announced a trade-in program for Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE:NT) Contivity Extranet Switch (CES) 4000 customers. Qualified Nortel customers demanding the highest throughput available will receive full credit on what they paid for their Nortel CES 4000 when they purchase an Altiga C50 Concentrator.

Altiga Networks recently contracted the Tolly Group, an industry leading independent testing organization, to perform tests of its C50 VPN Concentrator against the Nortel CES 4000 and the recently announced Nortel CES 4500.

"Nortel customers who purchased the CES 4000 thought they were purchasing an enterprise-class remote access switch. The Tolly Group results clearly state that Nortel fell short on delivering on their claims," said Mark Freitas, President and CEO, Altiga Networks. "The results of the Tolly Group test prove what we have been saying all along - Altiga has built the VPN platform that best serves the current and long-term VPN needs of enterprise users. With this trade-in program, we are offering Nortel's customers an opportunity to get the performance they thought they were buying with the CES 4000. Nortel's replacement product, the CES 4500, while including new processing capability, still does not match the performance of the Altiga VPN Concentrator Series C50."

Highlights of the Tolly Group test include:

-- The Altiga Networks C50 delivers between 310% and 620% better throughput than the Nortel CES 4000.

-- The Altiga Networks C50 delivers between 50% and 120% better IPSec throughput than the new replacement Nortel CES 4500.

-- Nortel was unable to complete the 1000 session test with their standard product. An additional 64 Meg of memory had to be added to the CES 4000 to obtain 1000 sessions. The CES 4500 was unable to complete this test.

-- The Altiga C50 provides full wire speed routing, and can route up to 138,500 packets per second (PPS) between ports. Nortel was unable to participate in this test due to their lack of routing capability.

-- The Altiga Networks C50 delivered a maximum 3DES user payload throughput of 59.6 Mbps v.s. only 36.2 Mbps for the CES 4500 and 10.8 Mbps for the CES 4000.

The Altiga VPN Concentrator Series

The Altiga VPN Concentrator Series offers a comprehensive VPN product line, with its C10, C20, and C50 models, specifically focused at addressing bandwidth-intensive broadband connections. It is ideal for enterprise corporations that need to support the largest scale of remote users, from 100 to 5000 concurrent sessions, and remote offices while achieving the highest performance and redundancy. The connections are exemplary of emerging high-performance desktop applications, such as real-time graphics and integrated voice, video and data, as well as the new breed of high-speed remote connections, such as cable and DSL. Available now, pricing ranges from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on configuration.

About Altiga Networks, Inc.

Altiga Networks' VPN concentrator technology is designed for the convergence of dial-up and multi-megabit connectivity, delivering an unprecedented level of performance, scalability and service availability, while minimizing operating costs. Specifically designed for corporations that require secure access for their remote employees, partners and customers via the Internet, the Altiga VPN Concentrator Series harnesses the power of VPN by enabling widespread deployment of remote bandwidth intensive applications. Altiga's product solutions are compatible with DSL and router equipment from leading networking companies, including 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS), Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO). For more information, please call Altiga Networks at (877) 4-Altiga or visit www.altiga.com.