Sphera Provides Customer 10 Gigabit New York Circuit in Only Two Weeks; Sphera, ONI Systems Continue to Redefine Metro Expectations.

Business Editors

EDISON, N.J. & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2001

Sphera Optical Networks, Inc., a leading metro core network provider, today announced it had contracted, designed and successfully implemented a 10 Gigabit SONET circuit in New York to a major US carrier in only 14 days. By contrast, delivery of such services has traditionally taken anywhere from 60 to 90 days.

Under the contract, Sphera provided high capacity, optical connectivity between two leading New York carrier hotels over its Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Metro ring supplied by ONI Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: ONIS). The customer accepted the circuit on August 27th, 2001.

"This further demonstrates Sphera's focus and success," said Rich Van Leeuwen, Sphera's CTO. "Our dedicated engineering and operations team together with ONI's excellent technical support made this a first for any provider. The unprecedented in-service insertion of 10Gbps wavelength services enables us to rapidly address emerging carrier requirements with ONI equipment."

Sphera redefines Tier 1 metropolitan connectivity expectations by deploying multiple service access locations in carrier hotels, data centers, co-location facilities and service providers' sites and providing carriers, ISPs and high bandwidth users with connectivity in days instead of months.

Sphera has been using ONI Systems' ONLINE(TM) platform for almost a year and has over 40 nodes in 11 cities throughout the US and Europe.

Hugh Martin, chairman, president and CEO of ONI Systems, a leading provider of optical networking equipment added, "Sphera's success in rapid deployment is a testament to our design goal of providing the maximum service agility for our customers. We are committed to helping reduce the operational expenses associated with a carrier's business. Setting new standards for delivery, test, and turn-up of new broadband optical wavelength services remains a key focus at ONI Systems."

"The valued relationship Sphera has with ONI produces significant benefits for our carrier customers as they migrate to all optical networking," added Harold Grossnickle, Sphera's CEO.

Sphera's customer base includes many of the leading US and International carriers.

About Sphera Optical Networks

Sphera Optical Networks, headquartered in Edison, NJ, is a leading provider of high capacity networks for the metropolitan core using the latest DWDM technology. Providing customers with high capacity networking capabilities on demand, Sphera sets a new industry standard for performance and efficiency by creating an environment of reduced provisioning intervals, expanded network reach, protocol independence, reliability and advanced network management capabilities for carriers, ISPs, ASPs and worldwide service providers.

For additional information, visit the web site, www.spheranetworks.com or contact Larry Chesal, Marketing Communications, Sphera Optical Networks, 110 Fieldcrest Avenue, 7th Floor, Edison, NJ 08837, 732-231-4025.

About ONI Systems

ONI Systems (NASDAQ: ONIS) develops, markets and sells optical networking equipment specifically designed to address bandwidth and service limitations of regional and metropolitan networks. Our products allow communication service providers to rapidly build high-capacity metro networks that are flexible, scalable and able to support multiple services on a single platform. Our products include the ONLINE11000, ONLINE9000, ONLINE7000, and ONLINE2500 transport platforms; the ONWAVE(TM) OC-48 SONET/SDH Add/Drop Multiplexer and the ONWAVE Data Multiplexer; and OC-192/STM-64 (10 gigabits per second) interface. The ONLINE(TM) transport platforms are complemented by our OPTX(TM) Software Suite for end-to-end wavelength and service management capabilities. The OPTX Software Suite includes the OPTX Network Manager, OPTX Network Designer, OPTX Management Portal, OPTX Network Operating System (NOS) and more, as well as the OLMP(TM) optical link management protocol suite for standards-based internetworking. ONI's new headquarters is located at 5965 Silver Creek Valley Road, San Jose, CA 95138. For additional information about ONI and its products, visit the company Web site at www.oni.com.

ONI Systems, ONI, the ONI logo, ONLINE, OPTX, OLMP and ONWAVE are trademarks or registered trademarks of ONI Systems Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our limited operating history which makes forecasting our future revenue and operating results difficult, our ability to develop and to achieve market acceptance of new products, our dependence on a small number of customers, our ability to add additional customers, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers for several key components, and current economic and market conditions. These and other risks and uncertainties are described from time-to-time in ONI Systems' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including ONI Systems' quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2001, ONI Systems' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and other documents on file with the SEC.