Carrier Access Delivers Next-Generation Remote Management and Enhanced Routing Capabilities to Adit 600.

Business/High-Tech Editors

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 14, 2001

Carrier Access Corporation (NASDAQ:CACS), an equipment manufacturer that helps more than 1,800 telecommunications companies accelerate service revenue, lower operating costs and extend capital budgets, today announced upgrades to its current Adit 600(TM) platform, including enhanced remote management capabilities and additional Router Service Card features, enabling carriers to offer their customers voice, video and high-speed data services using economical broadband access over wireline and wireless networks.

With the remote management upgrade, Carrier Access' customers can manage their Adit 600 over an in-band dedicated DS0 (64 Kbps) channel from the existing T1 access circuit and deliver faster infrastructure provisioning and element management capabilities. In addition, both Network Address Translation (NAT) and classless routing, two Router Service Card feature upgrades, help carriers reduce operating costs by enabling network planners to optimize available addresses and meet the needs of their individual networks.

"The Adit 600's upgrades benefit our incumbent, wireless and competitive customers by giving them a cost-effective interaction of service and management," said Mark Nixon, vice president of marketing for Carrier Access. "This solution is an example of our ongoing design philosophy of disruptive innovation, consistently engineering a 2:1 cost collapse while enabling new service revenues."

"Carrier Access has increased dramatically the value and performance propositions of its Adit 600 platform with its remote management and Router Service Card upgrades," said Erik Keith, analyst, broadband infrastructure for Current Analysis. "As service providers and their customers seek to maximize capital expenditure return on investment and reduce operational expenditures wherever possible, the Adit 600's new dedicated, in-band 64 Kbps feature management channel, NAT and classless routing capabilities will enable customers to achieve these goals."

Used with Carrier Access' current Access Navigator(TM), a 32 T1 digital cross connect system with GR-303 concentration, carriers now can cross-connect a single dedicated DS0 management channel on the Adit 600 T1 access circuit to the Network Operations Center's (NOC) and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) network. As Adit 600 customers use their existing service connections, instead of a separate Ethernet access circuit for management, carriers reduce infrastructure costs. And by leveraging the much faster DS0 feature management channel, rather than sending data over the currently available Facility Data Link (FDL), a 4 Kbps T1 overhead channel, carriers continue to effectively extend capital budgets and reduce operating expenses.

NAT simplifies data networking by providing a block of public addresses on the router wide area network (WAN) interface, increasing router flexibility in translating between private IP addresses on the local area network (LAN). In addition, classless routing also enables network planners to eliminate their ties to pre-established IP numbering outlines, requiring inefficient IP addressing in pre-specified increments.

About Carrier Access

Carrier Access is an equipment manufacturer that helps more than 1,800 telecommunications companies accelerate revenue, lower operating costs, and extend capital budgets by applying high-performance broadband access and service creation technologies. Founded in 1992, Carrier Access serves global service providers, wireless, incumbent, and competitive carriers, and has earned solid customer and revenue growth, earning repeated recognition by industry analysts and media as one of the nation's best-managed companies. Carrier Access' products are held to the highest possible reliability standards, including certifications like OSMINE, ISO 9000, and NEBS Level 3. For more information, visit www.carrieraccess.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. Many of the risks and uncertainties in Carrier Access's business are discussed in detail in its SEC reports, including the Form 10-K Report for the year ended December 31, 2000, and the Form 10-Q Report for the quarter ended March 31, 2001. All specifications and product pricing are subject to change without notice. Carrier Access, the Carrier Access logo and tagline, Solve for X and Adit are trademarks of Carrier Access Corporation.