Metrobility Unveils Expanded Carrier Ethernet Strategy; Recent certifications and upcoming products allow Metrobility customers to respond to the demand for higher bandwidth and triple-play services from their subscribers.

MERRIMACK, N.H. -- Metrobility Optical Systems today announced details of a strategic initiative to deliver carrier Ethernet metro access solutions to service providers through its AccessEthernet(TM), AccessMPLS(TM) and AccessTDM(TM) technologies deployed at the customer edge. These technologies allow Metrobility to align future products according to MEF requirements for carrier Ethernet, as well as meet emerging standards from the IEEE, IETF and ITU-T.

Leveraging recent certifications for Metrobility's intelligent optical Ethernet demarcation devices from the MEF and UNH IOL, the company is poised to extend carrier-class optical Ethernet services to solve the remote provisioning, management and troubleshooting dilemma many service providers face when working with current metro Ethernet solutions. The company's advanced technology results in a future-proof family of products, providing instant service provisioning, remote test and management capability, flexible management options and unrivalled performance for the "first mile" metro access.

"Since 2003, when we began shipping Ethernet demarcation devices, we've made volume shipments to top service providers both here and abroad, including Time Warner Cable, IPNetworks, Telefonica (Latin America), Nianet (Denmark) and the GARR Consortium (Italy)," said Alex Saunders, president and CEO of Metrobility. "As a result, we have seen quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth in revenue. As service providers respond to customer demands for higher bandwidth and triple-play services, we believe that the carrier Ethernet market will continue to grow. Metrobility is well-positioned to win in this market and we expect to see continued revenue growth and overall improvements in financial performance."

Current development efforts include the company's fourth generation of intelligent optical Ethernet demarcation devices, the Ethernet Services Provisioning Platform (ESPP) family. The service-enabling ESPP is based on a scalable and extensible architecture that dynamically enhances off-the-shelf switching silicon with Metrobility patent-pending technology.

"Using off-the shelf switching silicon allows us to respond more rapidly to emerging protocols and standards and to interoperate with other vendor's equipment," stated Manu Kaycee, director of system architecture for Metrobility. "This technology also simplifies the service creation and verification process and enables flexible traffic engineering, networking and aggregation, link protection and restoration, as well as multi-level management across a wide range of physical interfaces."

The first member of the ESPP family, the gigabit-based RS960, is a multi-port optical Ethernet demarcation device that delivers EFM/OAM-managed services over existing and emerging IEEE bridging standards and MPLS in a metro Ethernet network. The RS960 incorporates Metrobility's AccessEthernet and AccessMPLS(TM) technology to provide total flexibility in the deployment, provisioning and delivery of Ethernet services. Additional models for 100Mbps and increased port density are also being developed. Beta testing of the RS960 will be completed in late 2005, with production units shipping in the first quarter of 2006.

As part of the carrier services strategy, Metrobility plans to launch its AccessTDM(TM) technology, incorporating standards-based emulation technologies such as CESoP over Pseudo-Wires using MPLS and L2TP. This will allow carrier customers to leverage Ethernet access networks for TDM-enabled customer systems that could include voice, video, and data by transporting T1 or E1 circuits over Ethernet, MPLS and IP.

Based on requested features from its service provider customers, Metrobility's next-generation element manager, NetBeacon ESP, provides a more extensible and secure management, incorporating an easy-to-use interface to support secure, centralized provisioning and management of a large, geographically dispersed network. Initial testing of NetBeacon ESP is planned for October, 2005.

About Metrobility Optical Systems

Metrobility Optical Systems is an innovative, next-generation optical networking company focused on delivering optical access, connectivity and multiplexing to create a more efficient, more reliable, and more manageable network infrastructure. Metrobility is leading the way in the design and delivery of intelligent, VLAN-aware optical demarcation devices for metro Ethernet. With over a million units installed in networks around the world, Metrobility Optical Systems is an ISO 9001:2000 registered company based in Merrimack, New Hampshire USA. More information on Metrobility Optical Systems can be found at www.metrobility.com.

Lancast, Metrobility, Metrobility Optical Systems, and NetBeacon are registered trademarks of Metrobility Optical Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.