CIENA Strengthens European Growth With Expansion of Telecom Developpement Relationship.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

LINTHICUM, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2002

Optical Networking Leader Wins Six-Way Competitive Pitch To Answer

French Long-Distance Service Provider's Core Switching Needs

CIENA Corporation (Nasdaq:CIEN), a global provider of intelligent optical networking systems and software, today announced that Telecom Developpement (TD), France's second largest network operator, has selected CoreDirector(TM) as the primary optical switch for its network. TD held a comprehensive evaluation of six vendors' products and determined that CoreDirector best met its specifications.

TD will deploy CoreDirector switches from CIENA(R) to reduce its overall network operation costs and improve bandwidth utilization. This will give TD more flexibility within its network and allow new services such as ADSL and UMTS to be introduced faster.

CIENA has been working with TD for the last four years. Since 1998, Telecom Developpement has grown exponentially, tripling its revenues and network traffic.

TD's long-haul network spans more than 50 French cities and already uses CIENA's optical transport system, CoreStream(TM), to increase network capacity. This latest agreement takes TD's network one step further, by adding intelligent switching capabilities in Paris, with a further deployment scheduled for Lyon in 2003.

"There's a lot of hype in the optical market, and you have to be careful that you invest in a product that is proven and not just blue-sky technology," said Denis Manteau, vice-president of network and operations at Telecom Developpement. "We're a fast-moving, dynamic business, focused on delivering innovative services to our customers in the quickest, most flexible way possible. CIENA's combined technology leadership and the expertise of its team were significant contributing factors when it came to the decision on an optical switch."

CoreDirector delivers a wide range of differentiable end-to-end optical capacity across the network and incorporates the distributed intelligence of CIENA's software, which simplifies and enables automation as the network grows.

"It's a great testament to CIENA that a company with Telecom Developpement's reputation continues to expand its association with us," said Rafael de Ory, managing director, EMEA for CIENA. "Building long-term relationships with our clients and developing networks to guarantee optimum utilization is what CIENA is all about."

ABOUT CIENA

CIENA Corporation's market-leading intelligent optical networking systems form the core for the new era of networks and services worldwide. CIENA's LightWorks(TM) architecture enables next-generation optical services and changes the fundamental economics of service-provider networks by simplifying the network and reducing the cost to operate it. Additional information about CIENA can be found at www.ciena.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions of CIENA (the Company) that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release, including Telecom Developpement's plans to deploy CoreDirector in its network, are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, which include the risk factors disclosed in the Company's Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 23, 2002. Forward looking statements include statements regarding the Company's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.