Infinera adds Broadwing to growing customer list, acquires Corvis gear

July 19, 2006 Austin, TX, and Sunnyvale, CA -- Broadwing Corporation has selected Infinera's Digital Transport Networking (DTN) optical system to enhance its optical network. The Infinera DTN optical platform is the first telecommunications system based on photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In a related announcement, Infinera is licensing key Corvis intellectual property and will take over manufacturing and maintenance support for Broadwing's legacy Corvis gear.

"The decision to evolve our network is significant and is a result of much research and analysis," reports Mike Jones, chief technology officer for Broadwing. "This work leads us to the conclusion that the Infinera DTN is an important new technology in the continuing evolution of Broadwing's industry-leading transmission network architecture," he adds. "We believe that continuing our optical technology leadership will benefit our customers - and adding Infinera to our roster of strategic suppliers will help us to maintain that leadership."

The Infinera DTN will enable Broadwing to deploy a robust platform to meet customers' current and future service needs without requiring costly or operationally disruptive upgrades. Infinera's Digital Optical Networking will enable Broadwing to offer managed wavelength services to more cities in its nationwide network while benefiting from the economics of an architecture that combines transport and flexible switching in a single platform. It also will facilitate many new service capabilities, including:

• A path to future 40-Gbit/sec OC-768/STM-256 services
• Gigabit Ethernet private line service without a separate SONET layer
• Future protected wavelength services up to 50 m/sec plus full bit-transparency
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY

In addition, Infinera is licensing key Corvis intellectual property, including Raman amplification. Infinera also will take over manufacturing and maintenance support for Broadwing's CorWave network, with members of the Corvis engineering, manufacturing, and support team becoming Infinera employees.

"While the Infinera DTN was selected for its technical, operational, and economic advantages, the additional benefits of transferring equipment manufacturing and support to Infinera is significant and will help us focus on our core service delivery business," notes Kim Larsen, co-CEO and senior vice president of mergers & acquisitions and corporate development for Broadwing. "We appreciate the innovative spirit of the Corvis Equipment team, and we are pleased that they will continue to support our business in this new role."

"We are delighted at being selected by Broadwing to build their next-generation network," adds Jagdeep Singh, Infinera co-founder and CEO. "Broadwing operates one of the world's most advanced optical networks, and we look forward to providing them with the advanced features and functionality as well as the superior economics of the Infinera Digital Optical Network. The intellectual property we have licensed from Broadwing will add valuable capabilities to our technology base and enable us to develop additional applications for Infinera's Digital Optical Networking solutions."

Broadwing plans to deploy the Infinera DTN in regional network applications across its national network and also is evaluating the DTN for other applications.