Contract awarded for optical ground wire; NEON telecom superhighway advances.

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 1995--FiveCom Inc. of Waltham, Mass., developers of NEON (New England Optical Network) have announced the award of a multimillion dollar cable contract to FOCAS of Atlanta, Ga.

FOCAS is one of the nation's largest manufacturers of optical ground wire in the electrical utility industry. The companies disclosed their intentions to design and manufacture a very high-fiber count static ground cable for NEON applications throughout New England.

NEON is a unique fiber optic telecommunications system being built in utility easements. NEON carries voice, data and video traffic generated by FiveCom's carrier customers. NEON brings New England's information superhighway closer to realization. The newly engineered FOCAS cable being purchased and installed by FiveCom will be in service later this year. The cable is to be located in the transmission properties owned by the region's largest electric utility.

NEON optically connects major communications centers from Portland, Maine, to Stamford, Conn., with service to virtually every major telecommunication switching site in-between. "With this significant manufacturing commitment from FOCAS we are able to use high count cable and, as a result, the cost of our program will be less. The high fiber count and an aggressive delivery schedule by FOCAS allows our company to maximize rates of return while keeping the price of capacity precisely where we need to be. Compared to alternatives we are very pleased," said Victor Colantonio, president of FiveCom.

Although the value of the deal was not disclosed, sources indicated that the initial purchase topped $12,000,000. Some of the utility company executives involved felt that FiveCom's selection will facilitate fast turn-up on the electrical distribution and transmission routes utilized by NEON for its advanced optical system.

Manufacturing of the cable for FiveCom's applications will be shifted to FOCAS's new 80,000 square foot Atlanta cable plant that is scheduled for full operation later this summer. The FOCAS cable possesses the identical outward appearance and performance characteristics of conventional static ground wire that has been used for the past 15 years in the utility industry. The new cable design contains a series of small internal slots that serves as the pathway for tubes containing the optic filaments. The fiber filaments are made of high-quality glass.

FOCAS COMMENT

"Our strategy has always been contained within a partnership. In years past it has been GPU in the United States and Energis in the United Kingdom but NEON truly represents a new challenge. However, we are confident. FOCAS thrives on challenges.

"We initially approached the FiveCom program with our standard product line, but after understanding FiveCom's needs, it was apparent that a new solution and special fabrication would be necessary. FiveCom's order provides us with a rare opportunity to build a new product for the carrier market with an order in hand. The initial order will ship hundreds of miles of our new product during the early phases of the program. If expectations are met, the next few years could result in a production run of nearly 2,000 miles on this program alone," said Jack Bottoms, president of FOCAS.

COOKSON COMMENT

FOCAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cookson, London, England. Cookson executives attended the contract award ceremony. Frank Callahan, executive vice president commented, "Our cable people introduced us to FiveCom last summer. I was impressed with their big picture view of the market. In particular, the idea of developing a single telecom system for all of New England was very appealing to me," Callahan concluded.

FiveCom Inc. of Waltham, Mass., is the owner and operator of NEON. FiveCom Vice President Michael Musen stated, "NEON interconnects key locations by high speed, secure optical lines. Fiber optic cable ensures the instantaneous through-put of increasingly higher capacity and the faster computational and management applications needed by our customers." The process of selecting FOCAS involved hundreds of hours of painstaking engineering analysis which lead us to conclude that the FOCAS cable product was the best for our needs."

Arthur Rivers, FiveCom's vice president of operations, who spearheaded the procurement process said, "FOCAS has met all of the important technical concerns. To make this award, we had to have a dozen technical experts buy-off on the product. We made our decision based first on the technical merits of the cable and then on the price. FOCAS carried the day as our primary cable vendor."

FOCAS TECHNICAL CAPABILITY COMMENTS

We at FOCAS are capable of developing special designs to produce new types of OPGW and feel that this project is an excellent way to demonstrate our ability to work with customers and their consultants to come up with the best technological performance at the right price. We are happy to be working with FiveCom on this major new initiative in the telecommunications industry. Ray Grimwood, managing director of FOCAS, comments, "The NEON project is much like Energis in its character, a group of companies working together to install a large area system. The uniqueness of NEON is the further addition of the AT&T Network Cable Systems TRUEWAVE fiber."

OTHER COMMENT

Victor Colantonio, FiveCom Inc. president, describes his company as a neutral "carrier's carrier." "The NEON project, a new telecommunication infrastructure, is one of the most farsighted undertakings of the past 25 years, in terms of its scope and consequences. We are delighted to have FOCAS on board."

The NEON backbone is being built from Stamford, Conn., to Portland, Maine, and to points in between such as New Haven, New London, Hartford, Springfield, Keene, Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth. Separate loops are being engineered to link Danbury, Waterbury, Worcester, Providence and Boston into the main trunk routes.

The common carriers that ride NEON handle virtually 100 percent of the voice, data and video transmissions in the service area. Initially, we envisioned NEON as the ultimate network for geographic diversity (back-up, redundancy) mirroring the heavy carrier routes in New England. Our advantage is being physically separated from the existing heavy routes, thereby offering total geographic diversity. As laid out, NEON passes all of the long-distance switching centers (called points-of-presence or POPs), most telco tandems, 70 percent of the host serving offices and 50 percent of the remote central offices. Approximately 70 percent of the population and businesses are within a mile or two of the NEON trunk lines. According to Musen, "Early responses from carriers indicated that most NEON routes will be used for diversity or back-up." The company's diversity product is called Parallel Presence.

Other routes, however, are planned as primary paths by those carriers who need secure, reliable and efficient high speed optical capacity. NEON covers remote areas by virtue of its energy related destinations. NEON connects to many out-of-the-way locations. Carriers buy NEON capacity vs. having to install expensive cables individually. This is extremely appealing for our customers -- first, to be able to buy bandwidth that is 100 percent diverse -- second, to use a quality lightwave path at a reasonable price.

"Deploying NEON results in the carriers being able to deliver advanced telecommunication services to users, who could otherwise be left along the sidelines of the telecommunication revolution," said Musen.

CONTACT: Cheryl Mills, 800/891-5080