Newbridge SDSL Solution Further Extends the Reach of Managed Broadband Services.

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 1999--

Standards-Compliant SDSL Solution Provides Low Cost, Fully

Managed E1/T1, Frame Relay and Private Line Services

Newbridge Networks (NYSE:NN)(TSE:NNC) today announced it has expanded its digital subscriber line (DSL) portfolio to provide a cost-effective and flexible symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) solution.

The Newbridge(r) offering enables service providers to fully exploit the burgeoning market for premium copper-based broadband services by providing the least expensive solution in the industry for delivering fully-managed, 64 kb/s to 2.0 Mb/s frame relay services right to the customer premise. By integrating SDSL capability in the industry-leading Siemens / Newbridge MainStreetXpress(tm) 36170 Multiservices Switch, Newbridge offers the industry's first International Telecommunications Union Telecommunications (ITU-T) and HDSL/2B1Q compliant broadband-based SDSL solution.

With the addition of SDSL, Newbridge strengthens its portfolio and leadership position in the DSL market. The Company currently has the largest installed base of DSL network termination units -- over 500,000 lines -- with proven field performance. Over 35 service providers worldwide now use the Newbridge(r) broadband-based xDSL solutions, including Monaco Telecom, where a successful trial of the SDSL solution has just been completed.

"The Newbridge broadband SDSL solution represents a considerable leap forward in terms of management, performance and flexibility for bringing premium high-speed services to our customers," said Frank Julien, Technical Director, Monaco Telecom. "Compared with other DSL-based transmission technologies, we foresee significant business advantages in deploying the Newbridge broadband SDSL solution in our network to extend the reach of the broadband service portfolio we offer to our customers."

The banking industry, for example, has long requested that service providers offer affordable high-speed 1.5 or 2.0 Mb/s managed frame relay services to branch banking locations. The Newbridge SDSL solution enables service providers to now deliver very competitive service offerings that are managed to the desktop and provide a service assurance solution through stringent service level agreements (SLA's). All customer locations, whether SDSL or fiber connected, can now be integrated into the same unified virtual private network (VPN) allowing direct access to backbone services, such as voice switching, switched routing and service interworking.

With reach and speed ranging from 64 kb/s to 2.3 Mb/s, the Newbridge SDSL solution is ITU-T standard compliant for full T1/E1 rates over a single loop and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) high data rate digital subscriber line (HDSL) spectral compliant, supporting 784 kb/s over a single loop. Further, it is the only SDSL implementation that enables service providers to offer both managed legacy voice and data to coexist over a single copper loop.

"The Newbridge SDSL portfolio extends a powerful, integrated system that opens additional revenue streams for service providers," said Conrad Lewis, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Access Products Group, Newbridge Networks. "SDSL removes another barrier for service providers who want to offer premium broadband services and provides a solution that is highly affordable from a capital and total cost of ownership perspective."

Unlike the industry's earlier SDSL offerings, which employ separate DSL line multiplexers and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, the Newbridge SDSL solution provides unparalleled scalability, manageability, and support for value-added services. By integrating high-density DSL line cards into the MainStreetXpress 36170 Multiservices Switch, service providers are able to offer SDSL services directly from the existing broadband network infrastructure.

The ATM-based platform provides quality of service (QoS) guarantees and can support over 3,000 SDSL lines with an architecture scaling up to 40,000 SDSL lines per switch. Network and service management for the solution are provided by the MainStreetXpress Customer Service Management (CSM) Service Director and the MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager. The CSM Service Director provides end users with a real-time view of the service as well as current visibility of their SLA status. The MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager manages services and enables appropriate tariffing. This combination provides advanced, seamless network and service management right to the customer premise, thereby delivering end-to-end management of DSL and other access technologies with ATM backbone networks.

The Newbridge SDSL solution will be demonstrated at CeBIT'99 in Hannover, Germany, March 18-24, 1999. The Newbridge booth is located in Hall 11 at Booth F06.

Newbridge Networks designs, manufactures, markets and services networking solutions to organizations in more than 100 countries. The Company leverages its relationship with a growing family of Affiliate companies and strategic alliances with Siemens and 3Com Corporation to deliver seamless, end-to-end solutions. Newbridge customers include the world's 300 largest telecommunications service providers and more than 10,000 corporations, government organizations and other institutions. Founded in 1986, the Company employs more than 6,000 people on six continents. News and information are available at www.newbridge.com.

Newbridge, logo are registered trademarks of Newbridge Networks Corporation.

MainStreetXpress is a trademark used by the Siemens and Newbridge alliance for comprehensive solutions in broadband communication. No agency relationship, partnership, or joint ownership of a legal entity is to be inferred or implied by the use of the term alliance.