MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance and the ATM Forum Announce Intent to Merge; Organization to Provide Unified Industry Leadership on Multi-Service, Multi-Protocol Interworking.

SALT LAKE CITY -- In a joint announcement today, the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance and The ATM Forum unveiled plans to form a single organization to advance the deployment of multi-vendor, multi-service, packet-based networks, associated applications and interworking solutions. The merger will create a unified industry association with a combined membership of more than 100 companies representing the world's major service providers, equipment vendors, software and silicon suppliers, and enterprise end-users.

"The merger of The ATM Forum and MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance is great news for the industry," said Stu Elby, vice president of Network Architecture and Enterprise Technology within the Verizon Technology Organization. "The benefit to carriers, and to Verizon in particular, is that now there will be a single body creating Implementation Agreements (IAs), which will reduce the ambiguity that vendors currently face with joint ATM and MPLS technology development. Now carriers and vendors can look to a single industry forum and a common suite of IAs across ATM, FR, and MPLS, which should, in the long run, reduce the time to market for new network capabilities and services."

"In principle, this merger takes the public networking end-game of a profitable, convergence -- ready, true carrier-grade broadband network one step closer to reality," said John Mazur, Gartner Principal Analyst -- Public Network Infrastructure. "Internetworking of disparate technologies and carrier networks has been the final frontier for divergent standards bodies. Real world progress has often been hindered by competing standards organizations. This combination is a triumph for end-users, service providers and vendors alike."

"The big winner in this merger is the telecommunications industry," said Marlis Humphrey of Harris Corporation, chairman of the board, The ATM Forum. "Service providers will see fresh interworking solutions that result in real OPEX reductions while creating new and sustainable revenue-generating services. Equipment vendors will benefit from our amalgamated approach to multi-technology solutions without the cost of joining multiple organizations."

"The unification of the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance and The ATM Forum will provide a huge boost to the multi-service interworking goals shared by both organizations," said Andrew G. Malis of Tellabs, president and chairman of the board of the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance. "This merger is the culmination of a strongly coordinated effort over the past two years to closely align work items and allows us to become truly multi-protocol."

The boards of the two forums who have negotiated the merger agreement include representation and backing from the major infrastructure providers as well as service providers. The interim board of the merged forum will include representatives from Alcatel, Agilent Technologies, Bell Canada, Ericsson, Harris Corporation, Lucent Technologies, Riverstone Networks, Sprint, Tellabs, and Verizon.

The members of each organization will be asked to approve the merger by the end of this quarter. Completion of the merger is expected to take place by the end of this year. The two organizations held a co-located meeting this week in Salt Lake City and will continue to meet jointly and cooperate on market education and awareness activities in the interim.

About The ATM Forum

The ATM Forum was founded in 1991 as a non-profit international organization dedicated to speeding the education and mass deployment of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and other communications technologies as the foundation for broadband networks. Throughout its 13-year history, The ATM Forum successfully developed over 200 interoperability specifications that have been widely deployed by the industry, and has been a leader in the promotion of industry-wide cooperation on key technologies such as MPLS, DSL, FR, UMTS, Gigabit Ethernet, and SONET/SDH. Its work to enhance ATM interworking with emerging technologies and to enable existing and emerging applications and infrastructures that take advantage of ATM's inherent QoS, security and management features, will be continued within the merged organization. For more information go to: http://www.atmforum.com/.

About the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance

The MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance is an international industry organization that is advancing the recognition and acceptance of MPLS and Frame Relay technologies in the global telecom industry. The Alliance is driving worldwide deployment of multi-vendor MPLS and Frame Relay networks, applications and services, through interoperability initiatives, implementation agreements, and educational and marketing resources and programs. The Alliance currently has more than 50 members. For Alliance membership information please contact Alexa Morris, executive director, at 510-608-5914 or via e-mail at [e-mail]. Additional information about The MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance is available online at http://www.mplsforum.org/.