Calaveras Telephone Company Trials 2Wire's ADSL Loop Extender Technology.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

COPPEROPOLIS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2001

Innovative Loop Extender Technology in Tests to Extend

Availability of ADSL Service to More Calaveras Telco Customers

Calaveras Telephone Company today announced the successful completion of field trials for 2Wire(TM), Inc.'s (www.2Wire.com) ADSL loop extender technology. This innovative technology is being tested by Calaveras Telephone as part of its continued efforts to further extend the reach and enhance the performance of ADSL service for customers throughout the Calaveras Telephone service area.

"As the demand for high-speed DSL Internet service continues to grow, we are looking for new ways to offer DSL service to all of the customers in our service area, regardless of how far they are from a Calaveras Telephone central office, and for new ways to enhance the performance of our existing DSL service," said James Tower, vice president and general manager of Calaveras Telephone. "2Wire's loop extender technology provides us with a cost-effective alternative to fiber, especially for the low-density rural areas that we serve."

Tower continued, "In addition to dramatically increasing data rates within the service limit, our field trials of 2Wire's loop extender technology also show that this technology allows high data rates to be realized out to at least 34,000 feet, rather than the standard 18,000 foot service limit for DSL service. The trials of the 2Wire ADSL loop extender technology demonstrated downstream rates of 5.120 Mbps out to 34,000 feet, with loop extender circuits located at 15,000 feet and 21,000 feet from the serving central office. DSL service at these distances and at these rates is not possible without this loop extender technology."

For Calaveras Telephone, an important element of the 2Wire loop extender technology is the preservation of standard telephone service. Long loops are typically conditioned with load coils to extend the performance of standard telephone service, but these load coils are obstacles to providing DSL services on the same loop. While loop extender technology is easiest to implement if all load coils are removed, this is likely to leave the standard telephone service severely degraded or unusable.

"2Wire's loop extender technology integrates an advanced load coil design into the loop extender hardware, enabling us to maintain standard telephone service, which is critical for loops longer than 18,000 feet," said Tower.

"Our loop extender technology effectively conditions ADSL and standard telephone signals on the same wire pair, providing significantly better DSL service performance at greater distances, while maintaining standard telephone service," said Pat Romano, vice president of engineering for 2Wire. "We're very pleased with the results of Calaveras Telephone's field trials of our ADSL loop extender technology, and we look forward to working with telcos like Calaveras Telephone to make high-speed DSL service available to even more customers."

For more information about Calaveras Telephone's DSL service, please contact Calaveras Telephone at 209/785-2211.

About Calaveras Telephone

Calaveras Telephone Company is located in Copperopolis, California and was founded in 1895. It serves approximately 3,700 access lines in Calaveras County.