Ascend Unveils Low-cost High-performance DSL Terminator 100 Edge Device.

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1999--

Company's Full-featured DSL Terminator 100 Enables Service

Providers to Leverage Existing Infrastructure to Deliver New

Revenue Generating DSL Services

Ascend Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASND), a leader in wide area networking (WAN) and Intelligent Network (IN) solutions for providers and users of the next-generation public network, today announced the release of its compact DSL Terminator 100 for cost effective aggregation, termination, and management of high density subscriber sessions to accelerate the deployment of new high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) applications, such as telecommuting and Internet access.

The DSL Terminator 100 allows service providers to leverage their existing network infrastructure and business models to extend their service offerings.

As the latest addition to the Ascend MultiDSL product portfolio, the DSL Terminator 100 enables cost-effective deployment of feature-rich services, allowing service providers to manage subscribers in a distributed fashion and offer new revenue-generating services. With support of up to 1,000 Frame Relay or asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) virtual circuits (VCs), the DSL Terminator 100 aggregates and terminates incoming permanent virtual circuit (PVC) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) sessions from dozens of DSLAMs to offload service providers' expensive backbone routers from these tasks, and to prevent bottlenecks.

Delivering advanced subscriber management capabilities, the DSL Terminator 100 utilizes the existing RADIUS server to provide Authentication, Accounting, Billing and Service Selection features. For example, an end user can subscribe to a secure corporate local area network (LAN) during the day, and for an extra charge, to the Internet at night. Service providers can sell the same physical link to offer multiple revenue-generating services to the end user.

"Ascend's DSL Terminator fills a need, in an ever expanding DSL market, for more cost-effective and high-performance termination solutions," said Laurie Falconer, DSL Analyst for TeleChoice, Inc. "As demand for DSL services increases, overload of DSL data over service provider networks will put increased stress on backbone routers. The Ascend DSL Terminator relieves the load on backbone infrastructures, and provides high-volume termination with intelligent service provisioning for greater levels of end-user services."

The DSL Terminator 100 allows service providers, that is incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) or competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), to offer digital subscriber line (DSL) port wholesaling services, and enables carriers to quickly and easily allocate DSL ports to service providers, thereby maximizing revenue from each port. In addition, the DSL Terminator 100's virtual routing feature enables carriers to create network partitions for multiple Internet service providers (ISPs) and routes circuits to ISPs for subscriber management.

"The combination of our well-established TAOS platform with our advanced management feature-set, ensures a reliable high-end termination solution for our best-of-breed customer base," said Ashok Dhawan, general manager, High Speed Access for Ascend. "As our service provider customers look to extend their service repertoire with increased customized solutions, the DSL Terminator meets these requirements, but at a lowered cost and a higher performance level than similar competitive offerings."

Price and Availability

The Ascend DSL Terminator will be available in June 1999, with list price starting at $15,000. Customers outside the U.S. should contact their local Ascend representative or reseller for pricing and availability information.

About Ascend Communications

Ascend Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASND) develops, manufactures, sells and services wide area networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet service providers and corporate customers worldwide.

For more information about Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend Web site at www.ascend.com, or send e-mail to [e-mail]. For Investor Relations, please call Ascend's communications hotline at 800/648-3059 or 760/704-4423 (outside the U.S. & Canada). Additional investor information can also be accessed on Ascend's Web site at: http://www.ascend.com/investor/. Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, Calif. 94502; phone is 800/ASCEND4 and fax is 510/814-2300.

In January 1999, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Lucent Technologies, Inc. ("Lucent"), pursuant to which, each outstanding share of Ascend common stock will be exchanged for 0.825 shares of Lucent common stock and each outstanding option or warrant to purchase Ascend common stock will be converted into an option or warrant to purchase Lucent common stock (adjusted for the exchange ratio).

In February 1999, Lucent announced a two-for-one stock split, payable on April 1, 1999, to shareholders of record as of March 5, 1999. Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, the exchange ratio will be adjusted for the effect of this stock split and any similar changes in the capitalization of Lucent.

The foregoing statements may contain forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from these expectations as a result of factors including, but not limited to, the Company's success in developing, introducing or shipping new products, competition, the mix of distribution channels employed, the Company's dependence on single or limited source suppliers for certain components used in its products, risks inherent in international sales, seasonality and general economic conditions. These and other factors are discussed in Ascend's 10-K, 10-Q and other filings made periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission.