World's largest broadband cross connect -- 2.5M voice channel capacity -- commercially available from Alcatel.

RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1997 --

The industry's only true broadband machine "because bigger really is

better"

Alcatel Network Systems, a division of Alcatel Alsthom (NYSE: ALA), today announced commercial availability of the Alcatel 1633 SX 4,096 port configuration, remaining the largest broadband digital cross connect ever built.

Alcatel already has several customers -- including MCI -- for this product, which it is now shipping.

"Alcatel makes the industry's first and largest broadband machine, with DS3, STS-1, and optical port connections operating at 155 and 622 Mbit/s," said Ken Lewis, Alcatel Vice President and General Manager for Cross Connects. "We built over 4000 ports into one machine to handle the video and data-intensive requirements of today's and tomorrow's networks. Furthermore, our large capacity means that carriers will not have to install multiple broadband or wideband machines to meet growing broadband requirements. This unwieldy arrangement can create enormous problems in central office logistics, operations, and maintenance. Multiple machines also require expensive inter-machine trunks."

Alcatel's 4,096 bi-directional STS-1 equivalent ports equates to 2,048 simultaneous two-way DS3 connections (each DS3/STS-1 equals 672 voice channel equivalents), or an astounding 1,376,256 simultaneous voice call connections. As a further comparison, this equates to the total simultaneous peak voice-call traffic -- including business traffic -- in a city the size of Dallas.

In support of broadband networking and the all-optical central office, Alcatel introduced the 1633 SX as the first cross connect with SONET (synchronous optical network) OC-3 and OC-12 rate (155 Mbit/s and 622 Mbit/s) optical ports. Optical ports and an all-optical central office increase network reliability and reduce cable congestion, while supporting STS-3c and STS-12c concatenated payloads for ATM. This year, the 1633 SX will support 1:4 OC-12 port protection to provide all the advantages of optical ports, but at a lower cost than electrical ports or 1+1 protected optical ports. This type of protection is key to carriers who want to migrate towards an optical infrastructure optimized for future ATM-oriented services.

Other important attributes found in Alcatel's mature, next generation 1633 SX technology include:

-- Provides a full set of Bandwidth Management features for DS3, STS-1

and STS-Nc payloads;

-- Supports up to 4,096 DS3 or STS-1 electrical ports;

-- Supports up to 320 OC-12 or 1,280 OC-3 optical ports;

-- Supports port partitioning and broadcast for video

applications;

-- Provides extensive performance monitoring and test access to

simplify operations and maintenance;

-- Includes Fast Facility Protection for 50 msec restoration of failed

facilities; and

-- Provides Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) STM-1 and STM-4 port,

payload, and gateway features.

Another Alcatel milestone in this development effort concerns upgrading the existing 2,048-port 1633s in the field to 4096-port systems while remaining in service.

"In-service growth is the cornerstone of all Alcatel digital cross connects," said Mr. Lewis. "We have always been able to grow our machines to meet our customers' expansion plans, both planned and unforeseen requirements."

Alcatels family of cross connects provides application-specific solutions for a variety of telephone company and private network requirements. Alcatel uses a common platform of hardware and software and each product is optimized for a specific network function. Alcatels customer base in North America, including long distance, local, wireless, CAP, CLEC, and private service providers, have deployed Alcatel narrowband, wideband, and broadband digital cross connects.

Alcatel is demonstrating its industry-leading cross connect technology in booth 149 at the Supercomm '97 conference and exhibition, June 1 - 5, in New Orleans.

Alcatel's activities in North America include the design, manufacture and service of a full line of voice, data, video and multimedia telecommunications products -- such as ATM switching systems, digital cross connects, DSL systems, fiber optic transmission systems, optical amplifiers, microwave radios, wireless communications switches, video codecs, and network management systems. The telecommunications and broadcast industries, private operators and corporations use these products to create high performance networks. The global operations of Alcatel make it one of the world's leading communications equipment manufacturers. Alcatel is part of the Alcatel Alsthom group, which maintains its headquarters in Paris. Alcatel Alsthom trades on the New York Stock Exchange as ALA.

CONTACT: Alcatel Network Systems, Richardson

Michael Newsom, 972/996-7896

Internet: [e-mail]