N.E.T. and Ericsson provide multiservice backbone for Coltefinanciera, one of Colombia's leading financial organizations.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 1995--Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (N.E.T.) is providing the initial phase of a nationwide backbone network for Coltefinanciera S.A., a leading financial company in Colombia, under a contract awarded to Ericsson Business Communications AB (EBC), of Sweden.

The wide area network, valued at $1 million customer list price, is based on N.E.T. IDNX multiservice bandwidth managers that include integral frame relay and LAN internetworking and routing capabilities. Coltefinanciera, which belongs to the Ardila Lulle Organization -- one of the most important economic groups in the country, is modernizing its network to contribute to its success as a banking organization.

EBC, a strategic business partner of N.E.T., distributes and supports IDNX multiservice bandwidth managers worldwide. The N.E.T. Asia-Pacific/Latin America sales organization worked closely with Ericsson de Colombia S.A. to win the contract, which also includes the purchase of Cisco routers and other vendors' products. Ericsson de Colombia is the Ericsson group's Colombian affiliate.

"As the financial organization for Colombia's Ardila Lulle business organization, we required a highly reliable multiservice network with the capacity and applications availability to support the types of critical voice and data traffic that businesses rely on to prosper," said Isaias Poveda, Corporate Director of Telecommunications Network, Coltefinanciera. "In addition, we needed seamless compatibility with the national carrier's backbone network and with Cisco routers to maximize our networking infrastructure."

"Coltefinanciera presented a set of networking challenges that clearly called for a dynamic solution that provided intelligent re-routing capabilities and a fail-safe back-up system, so we were quite confident with our recommendation for the IDNX backbone," said Marco Perez, director, Ericsson de Colombia S.A. "We have been earning our business in Colombia for more than 100 years and we look forward to a lasting relationship with one of the foremost financial organizations in the country -- Coltefinanciera."

"Ericsson has done an excellent job spearheading our effort in Colombia, and we were particularly pleased with the addition of Coltefinanciera to our client list," said Ed Peverell, senior vice president of sales and marketing, N.E.T. "We understand the variety of networking applications that are required by a large financial concern, and we developed the N.E.T. Vista Architecture for this type of mission-critical network that must be used for today's business and extended to meet tomorrow's challenges."

Coltefinanciera will create a network of 15 IDNX multiservice bandwidth managers that can support voice, data and video. The IDNX switches will be equipped with integral Frame Relay Exchange and LAN/WAN Exchange modules (which are internal routers running Cisco router code), for frame relay and LAN internetworking and routing traffic. The frame relay and LAN traffic is carried on the same backbone that handles traditional voice and data traffic for tremendous cost efficiencies. The network will be used by Coltefinanciera to support circuit, packet and frame traffic related to the company's financial business.

Installation of the network will begin immediately and the first phase of the network will be completed by the end of 1995. While Ericsson will maintain the network, technical assistance from N.E.T. will be available on a 24-hour, seven-day-per-week basis.

The N.E.T. IDNX family of multiservice bandwidth managers consists of five sophisticated networking models that combine efficient multiplexing, intelligent call-routing, LAN internetworking and routing, frame relay switching, ISDN signaling and network management. The N.E.T. systems are part of the N.E.T. Vista Architecture, a multiservice architecture for broadband and narrowband wide area networks.

Ericsson's 75,000 employees are active in more than 100 countries. Their combined expertise in switching, radio and networking makes Ericsson a world leader in telecommunications.

N.E.T., headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. (NYSE: NWK), is a leading worldwide supplier of multiservice backbone networks for information-intensive enterprises and network service providers. The company has networks installed in more than 50 countries. Customers include financial, transportation, manufacturing, service, government and telecommunications organizations requiring the efficient and reliable transport of mission-critical information on a regional, national or global basis.

N.E.T. meets the exacting worldwide ISO 9001 standards for design and manufacturing and is certified to the TickIT quality standard for software development. -0- Note to Editors: Network Equipment Technologies, N.E.T., Frame Relay Exchange, LAN/WAN Exchange and the N.E.T. logo are trademarks, and IDNX is a registered trademark of Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.

CONTACT: N.E.T.

Paul Morrison, 415/780-5010 (media)

Ann Candelario, 415/780-5605 (financial)

or

Ericsson

Marco Perez, 011 (57 1) 262 9400