Astral Point Extends Relationship with Telcordia Technologies; Signs OSMINE Contracts for Telcordia TIRKS System and Telcordia NMA System.

Business/Technology Editors

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 2, 2001

Astral Point Communications, Inc., a leading provider of metropolitan optical networking solutions, announced today that it has extended its relationship with Telcordia(TM) Technologies by signing contracts to participate in the OSMINE process for the Telcordia(TM)TIRKS system and the Telcordia(TM) NMA system. The contract calls for Astral Point's optical networking products to begin the integration processes this fall.

"OSMINE compliance is a significant barrier of entry into the ILEC market. Astral Point's commitment provides a strong indication that they are very serious about attracting ILEC business. They now have a significant head start in the OSMINE process over many of the metro vendors," said Ron Kline, senior transport analyst with RHK, Inc. "Their new ON 7000 transport node will be an attractive product to ILECs looking to combine core transport functionality such as a digital cross-connect, DWDM and an add/drop multiplexer in a compact but highly dense platform."

The OSMINE process is intended to facilitate the integration of networking equipment into the legacy operations support systems (OSS) of ILECs. All network elements must be integrated into the OSS for seamless provisioning, billing and monitoring across a service provider's network for rapid service deployment. Without the consistent set of interfaces that OSMINE provides, there is no assurance that disparate vendor products can interoperate under the OSS environment.

TIRKS is an integrated OSS that supports network provisioning process in terms of inventory management, circuit provisioning and circuit order control. NMA is a network monitoring and surveillance operations support system.

"Astral Point, as a private optical networking company, is showing their commitment to have their product family go through the OSMINE integration process and their clear understanding of the importance of OSS integration to the ILECs," said Dennis Tinley, vice president, Operations Support Systems, Telcordia Technologies.

"ILECs spend $74 billion annually on operations. It is critical for Astral Point to take part in the OSMINE process so that our equipment can be quickly integrated into their OSS environments," said Raj Shanmugaraj, Astral Point's co-founder, president and chief executive officer. "By participating in the OSMINE process with Telcordia, we are enabling the ILECs to rapidly integrate our products into their networks and roll out new services to generate new streams of revenue."

In December 2000, Astral Point announced that the ON 5000 Optical Services Node had received Common Language Equipment Identifier (CLEI) codes from Telcordia as part of the OSMINE process. CLEI codes are assigned by Telcordia to each network element component to provide a standard method of identifying telecommunications equipment based on a common language.

According to leading industry analyst firm CIMI Corporation, the spending patterns of ILECs have changed dramatically. In 1988, 88% of ILEC expenses were related to capital equipment costs with 12% spent on operational expenses. By 2001 that ratio had been reversed with 82% spent on operational expenses and 18% on capital equipment expenses. OSMINE helps enable the ILECs to integrate disparate vendors equipment seamlessly and helps to put them in a position to roll out new services and generate revenue quickly.

About Astral Point

Astral Point Communications, Inc., of Chelmsford, MA, is pioneering the development of equipment to manage optical bandwidth for new types of services in the metro optical network sector. In addition to the new ON 7000 Integrated Optical Transport Node, the company's ON 5000 Optical Services Node and Galaxy Distributed Control Plane(TM) (Galaxy DCP(TM)) software combine to maximize the use of optical power and simplify service deployments and upgrades. The company's ONset Optical Network Management System(TM) (ONset ONMS(TM)) enables service providers to add circuits in minutes from a single console and provide centralized network management. Astral Point recently became the first telecom equipment vendor in Massachusetts to earn certification of its management operating system to the comprehensive ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard. Additional information can be found on the Astral Point web site at www.astralpoint.com