Red Sky Systems Successfully Demonstrates New Undersea Network Solutions Interfaced to Standard Marconi Terrestrial Switches.

CHESTER, U.K. -- Red Sky Systems demonstrates 1000km DWDM transmission and optical ring switching using Red Sky's Optical Line Interface and a terrestrial Marconi Multiservice Optical Core Switch

Red Sky Systems, Inc. announced today the successful completion of a major demonstration of interoperability between its regional undersea optical transport platform and Marconi's OMS3200 series of optical core switches.

The two companies demonstrated that their technologies could be integrated to break through the barriers of proprietary undersea network connectivity solutions while maintaining carrier-class performance. This unprecedented technical achievement highlights Red Sky's leadership in driving the convergence of terrestrial and undersea technologies to significantly lower network acquisition, operating and maintenance costs for new undersea network build outs.

"Red Sky has demonstrated the viability of its highly scalable and flexible network solution integrated with terrestrial equipment," said Mark Young, chief executive officer of Red Sky Systems. "This demonstration will build operators' confidence in the potential of new cost-effective solutions specifically tailored to the bandwidth capacity demands in today's regional undersea market."

For the interoperability demonstration, Red Sky interconnected unmodified terrestrial-based Marconi OMS3240 and OMS3250 multiservice switches with Red Sky's Optical Line Interfaces. The interconnected equipment was then used to transport multiple 10Gbps channels directly over a 1000km bi-directional amplified optical transmission line featuring Red Sky's ultra-compact undersea optical amplifiers. The demonstration included network capabilities such as automatic service and protection path switching through the Marconi optical core switch as well as the ability to display Red Sky alarm status on the Marconi craft interface terminal.

The demonstration showed that new service provisioning, sparing and capacity upgrade implementations can be vastly simplified by using fewer back-to-back interconnects and by reducing the complexity of the network management system. In addition, the demonstration illustrated how the alarm reporting and management interface functions of the Red Sky Optical Line Interfaces simplify connectivity between the undersea and terrestrial portions of an operator's network and provide a common multiservice network protection solution.

"Today's successful demonstration highlights the versatility of Marconi's multiservice optical core switches in a variety of applications," said Erik Lindberg, head of product marketing for Optical Networks at Marconi. "Features such as high-capacity switching, traffic optimisation and rapid service provisioning are vital to dramatically reducing network operating costs."

The demonstration's results mean that operators can now consider Marconi's Optical Multiservice Core Switches for use in their undersea networks by simply adding Red Sky's Optical Line Interface. The Red Sky Optical Line Interface provides both a DWDM interface with signal conditioning and a management interface that collapses an amplified undersea fibre-optic line into a single network element and simplifies end-to-end network management.

About Marconi Corporation plc

Marconi Corporation plc is a global telecommunications equipment, services and solutions company. The company's core business is the provision of innovative and reliable optical networks, broadband routing and switching and broadband access technologies and services. The company's customer base includes many of the world's largest telecommunications operators.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol MONI and on NASDAQ under the ticker MRCIY. Additional information about Marconi Corporation can be found at www.marconi.com.

About Red Sky Systems, Inc.

Red Sky Systems, Inc. is a global provider of telecommunications hardware and services specifically tailored for regional undersea networks. Red Sky System's product solution, including its patent-pending Optical Line Interface and ultra-small undersea amplifiers, enables carriers to deploy unmodified terrestrial terminal equipment across their regional undersea networks to build undersea networks with the same ease and transparent network management as provided by terrestrial network build outs.

Copyright (c) 2004 Red Sky System, Inc. All rights reserved. All brands or product names are trademarks of their respective holders.