LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES UNVEILS ULTRA-HIGH-CAPACITY OPTICAL SYSTEM.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) and Time Warner Telecom Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTC) have signed an agreement to deploy the newest Lucent optical networking system, which has the capacity to enable every person in the United States and Canada to simultaneously transmit a one-page e-mail across the same network.

Under the terms of the agreement, Time Warner Telecom, a leader in providing local and regional optical broadband networks and services to business customers, will be among the first to deploy the Lucent WaveStar(TM) OLS 1.6T, an ultra-high-capacity dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system. This new technology will enable Time Warner Telecom to dramatically expand the capacity of its network. The three-year agreement is valued at up to $100 million.

Initially, Lucent is delivering and installing the system with the capacity of 800 gigabits (billion bits) per second (Gb/s). At this rate, a single fiber in Time Warner Telecom's network could transmit the data contained on some 160 CD ROMs each second. The system Time Warner Telecom is purchasing includes a combiner/splitter that makes it "terabit ready." This means a carrier can double its network capacity to 1.6 terabits (a trillion bits) per second, without interrupting service, when its bandwidth requirements call for such a capacity boost.

"Our business customers rely on us to stay ahead of their skyrocketing demand for broadband capacity," said Mike Rouleau, Time Warner Telecom senior vice president for marketing and business development. "Lucent's continuing advances in technology and its experience in integrating networks help make it possible for us to deliver industry-leading capacity and premier services and solutions to our customers."

Lucent's Worldwide Services is engineering, installing and integrating the Lucent systems into Time Warner Telecom's western region network supporting Los Angeles; San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Boise, Idaho; Las Vegas and Phoenix. Much of the network in the western states was recently acquired by Time Warner Telecom in its $690 million purchase of assets from the bankruptcy of GST Telecommunications Inc. Deployment is already underway in phases in the western states and is expected to be completed by mid-2001.

The Lucent WaveStar OLS 1.6T architecture provides Time Warner Telecom a scaleable, flexible solution for long-haul applications and builds on the technology platform of the Lucent WaveStar OLS 400G -- a DWDM system that offers up to 400 Gb/s of capacity. DWDM technology increases network capacity by transmitting multiple wavelengths -- or colors -- of light across a single fiber, with each wavelength carrying a distinct stream of information.