Lucent Technologies Unveils 48-Port 10/100 Mbps Module for Cajun P550 Switch; New Offer Provides High-Density Connectivity From Wiring Closet To Desktop For Under $100 Per Port.

CONCORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 18, 1999--

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced a new 48-port 10/100 megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet module for its award-winning Cajun(TM) P550(TM) Gigabit Switch that provides high-density connectivity from local area network wiring closets to desktops for less than $100 per port.

Up to six 48-port modules can be used in the chassis-based P550 Switch, providing network managers with up to 288 available full-/half-duplex 10/100 ports--all in a compact, 10.5-inch platform.

Customers can easily mix-and-match this latest module with all the existing Cajun P550 media modules, including two- and four-port Gigabit Ethernet cards, 10-port fiber Fast Ethernet modules and 12- and 20-port 10/100 blades, to provide a high-degree of flexibility in how they configure their network. Additionally, this new module can be combined with the Cajun P550's wire-speed, Layer 3 IP/IPX routing capabilities that give managers still more options when it comes to designing a cost-effective enterprise backbone solution.

Like all P550 modules, the 48-port 10/100 card is also "hot swappable," meaning it can be added to or removed from the chassis without network administrators having to power down the unit.

"The new 48-port, 10/100 P550 module provides our customers with an aggressively-priced, high-density connectivity solution that breaks the $100 per port barrier in a feature-rich, chassis-based platform," said Menachem Abraham, president of Lucent's Enterprise Systems group.

With its ability to combine 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet and 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet modules in the same chassis, the 7-slot Cajun P550 is designed for campus-wide backbone networks and easily scales as network bandwidth requirements grow.

Lucent's P550 is a member of the company's Cajun Campus family of Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and multifunction switching and routing platforms.

Pricing and Availability

Lucent's new 48-port 10/100 P550 module (Model M5548E-100TC) has a U.S. list price of $4,795. Volume shipments are scheduled to begin within 15 days.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. Additional information about Lucent Technologies is available on the company's Web site at www.lucent.com. -0- Cajun and P550 are trdemarks of Lucent Technologies.