3 June 2003 Murray Hill, NJ Lightwave--Lucent Technologies today announced that BellSouth Corporation (Atlanta) has chosen Lucent to supply advanced metro optical technology for BellSouth's multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP). Lucent currently is providing its Metropolis DMX Access Multiplexer, a SONET system designed to increase network capacity and enable high-speed services in metropolitan networks. Lucent Worldwide Services is providing engineering and installation services to support the implementation of the new metro network.

"The upgrade to next-generation SONET is a key milestone in BellSouth's aggressive strategy to deploy a flexible high-speed optical infrastructure and increase the optical processing capabilities of our network," said Bill Smith, chief product development and technology officer for BellSouth. "Our MSPP platform will enable us to offer cutting-edge services over a next-generation SONET infrastructure while adding protected carrier-class reliability to Ethernet and other packet services."

The Metropolis DMX portfolio includes the DMX Access Multiplexer for central office and large enterprise applications, the DMXpress for customer premises applications, DMXtend, for enterprise and loop access applications, and DMXplore, available in July, to deliver next-generation SONET services economically right to the customer's premises. All provide compatible next-generation SONET functionality and serve as integrated Ethernet over SONET metro platforms. When used together, the products in the portfolio create an end-to-end solution that allows carriers to offer faster, more sophisticated services while lowering operating costs.