Lucent Technologies to Support New V.92 Dial-Up Modem Standard Across Market Leading Remote Access Products.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 2000

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced its support for the new industry standard for connecting dial-up modems to the Internet across its market-leading remote access platforms for service providers. Lucent has also started interoperability testing with a number of PC modem and modem chip vendors to help shorten the process for making standards-based equipment available for service providers and Internet users worldwide.

Called V.92, the standard has been determined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a foundation for a new generation of modems for PCs and other access devices and the remote access equipment in service provider networks that they connect to over telephone lines. Building on today's V.90 modem technology, V.92 adds three new features - faster connect times to the Internet, more upstream bandwidth and the ability to take another phone call without having to disconnect from the Internet.

"As more people access the Internet each day through an increasing number of devices, there is continued end user demand for dial-up access worldwide," said Joe Sigrist, president of Lucent's InterNetworking Systems' Edge Access Group. "As the leader in remote access equipment for service providers with over 20 million ports deployed, Lucent is committed to providing service providers with next generation Internet equipment that will improve the Internet access experience for their customers. Our support of V.92 is evidence of that commitment."

For end users to use the new features of V.92, both ends of the "call" must be compliant with the standard, including the end user's PC, Internet appliance, gaming console or other access device and the remote access equipment in the Internet service provider's (ISP) network. For the past two months, Lucent has been testing its V.92-enhanced equipment for service providers' networks with V.92 PC modems or modem chip sets from Conexant, Intel, Lucent's Microelectronics Group, Motorola, PCTEL and others. As with any new standard, multi-vendor interoperability is critical to help accelerate deployment of standards-based equipment.

V.92 was specifically designed to provide end users with faster and more convenient access to the Internet. The new features of V.92 include:

- QuickConnect(TM) allows end users to connect to the Internet up to 50 percent
faster over regularly used connections than with existing modems.

- Modem on Hold enables a user who has one phone line to answer an incoming
phone call while remaining connected to the Internet.

- Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Upstream increases the bandwidth for transmission
of information from an end user to the ISP, typically e-mails and Web site
requests.

Lucent originally proposed the PCM Upstream technique when the V.90 standard was first being formulated. Lucent has contributed significantly to the ITU's V.92 working group and now serves as editor of the V.92 standard.

The extra upstream bandwidth of V.92 will also help improve the quality of PC-to-phone voice over IP calls, a growing segment of the Internet telephony industry. Increasingly, e-commerce Web sites are using this technology to connect their Web customers to their customer service departments by routing the calls through VoIP gateways instead of the public telephone network.

Lucent plans to add V.92 capabilities to its APX(TM) 8000 and MAX(TM) TNT(TM) Multiservice Wide Area Network Access Switches and its MAX family of Remote Access Concentrators early in 2001. Lucent's MultiVoice(TM) VoIP software runs on its remote access products to combine VoIP gateway functionality and V.92 Internet access features into a single product.

Lucent continues to be the worldwide leader in remote access products for service providers based on the most recent reports for the second quarter of 2000 from Cahners In-Stat, Dell'Oro, Dataquest and IDC. In that same quarter, Lucent distributed more than 2 million remote access concentrator ports - the first time any vendor has reached that milestone.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as broadband and mobile Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.