Cubic Communications Awarded Wireless Base Station Equipment Contract Valued at up to $30 million; Will Deliver to Harris Corporation for MariTEL Digital Wireless Network.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2001

Cubic Communications Inc., a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), has been awarded a contract valued at up to $30 million by Harris Corp. to supply maritime wireless base station equipment for a national communications network for recreational boaters, commercial shippers and government agencies.

MariTEL's Wireless VHF Radiotelephone Network will offer maritime telephone, voice and data services, including fax, e-mail, touch tone dialing and vessel location. A project of MariTEL Inc., the network will ultimately include 291 cellular-like radio towers covering the coastline and navigable inland waterways of the United States.

Under the three-year contract with Harris Corp. (systems integrator for MariTEL), Cubic will provide up to 3,500 MTC-100 digital base station receivers and transmitters and up to 250 Direction Finder (DF) Processors. Cubic previously supplied 30 digital radio base station systems for the new network. Those systems have already been deployed along the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River and are scheduled for service launch this month.

The first phase of the new contract, valued at $7.5 million, will add 130 sites to complete the network buildout along the Atlantic, Pacific and Mississippi. Cubic will produce approximately 700 digital transceivers for use in the wireless base station system and 130 DF systems for use in vessel location and cellular-like hand-off between sites. As system capacity and coverage requirements grow, a second release of 3,000 transceivers and 100 DF systems would total $22.5 million.

Cubic will begin production on the new contract immediately and anticipates delivery of all components by late 2003. The equipment covered under the new contract will be initially deployed along the mid-Atlantic and New England coast, and ultimately will cover all coastal and navigable inland waterways in the U.S.

"We are extremely pleased that Harris and MariTEL have elected to continue and strengthen the relationship with Cubic Communications through award of the production phase of the program," said Richard M. Lober, CCI president and CEO. "We look forward to working with the team towards a rapid system buildout and service ramp-up which will give recreational boaters and commercial shippers modern wireless services and enhance safety at sea."

The new MariTEL Maritime Telecommunications Network will allow boaters and commercial operators to communicate from up to 50 to 100 miles offshore. Lober said the network is creating extensive national and international interest, not only for updating analog maritime radio technology for 21st century convenience, but also for its potential in search-and-rescue operations. The Canadian Coast Guard has been using Cubic's DF processors for several years to determine vessel location of boaters in distress, and the U.S. Coast Guard is currently testing the technology.

Cubic Communications Inc. provides high quality Radio Frequency (RF) and Digital Signal Processing (DSP)-based wireless communications equipment to government and commercial customers worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, the company has served the domestic and international communications and signal intelligence markets for more than four decades. Lober said that involvement in projects like MariTEL signals Cubic's increasing emphasis on the commercial communications market.

"This contract is a significant step in our transition from traditional defense intelligence markets to high volume, software-definable transceiver products in the commercial and government wireless communications space," Lober said.

Cubic Corp. is the parent company to two major segments: Transportation Systems and Defense. In addition to providing radio communication systems to global commercial and government customers, the Defense Group provides battle command training and instrumented training systems for military forces, as well as avionics, data links and product logistical support.

Cubic's other major segment, Cubic Transportation Systems, designs and manufactures automatic revenue collection systems for public transit projects throughout the world. For more information about Cubic, see the company's Web site at www.cubic.com.

MariTEL, the nation's leading provider of Marine VHF radiotelephone communications, was the successful bidder in the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Marine Public Correspondence auction held in December, 1998, acquiring the licenses for all areas of the United States that contain coastline or navigable inland waterways. For information about MariTEL, see the company's Web site at www.maritelusa.com.