OFS ANNOUNCES ACCESS ADVANTAGE ™ FIBER-TO-THE-HOME-AND-BUSINESS SYSTEM

Opens New Revenue Streams Utilizing Breakthrough Cabling Technologies and High Capacity Fibers

Fiber to the Home Conference, New Orleans, LA, Booth 304 - October 15, 2002 –  OFS, designer, manufacturer and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, today introduced the Access Advantageä System, its comprehensive solution enabling economical optical connectivity to homes, businesses, and multiple dwelling units (MDUs), including those in previously hard to reach areas. It supports all Fiber-To-The-Subscriber (FTTx) architectures, including Passive Optical Network (PON) and Point-to-Point (P2P) implementations, and relevant standards that are currently in place. Access Advantage based networks enable revenue generating services such as secure high-speed business data, HDTV broadcast, instant video on demand, and high-resolution internet video games. Access Advantage is the first FTTx solution to combine lowest cost per bit fibers and innovative cabling and apparatus into a total system.

The Access Advantage system significantly lowers the fiber deployment costs associated with the FTTx build with new optical cable technologies that can use diverse right-of-ways to connect the service provider to its customers. Among these technologies are the air-blowing, optimized DuctSaverÒ FX and MiDiaÒ FX micro-cable designs. These revolutionary small fiber cables are blown into existing duct networks, eliminating the cost of invasive and disruptive excavation, and procurement of rights of way. Initial investment costs are likewise kept to a minimum as fiber can be deployed as needed based on customer demand. Furthermore, OFS’ new PowerGuideÒ TTH all dielectric self-supporting cables (ADSS) ease the rapid deployment of inexpensive aerial networks.

"Anticipating customer needs, we wanted our FTTx solution to be packaged specifically to their unique requirements in order to make FTTx a reality," said Paul Neuhart, President Optical Cable Division at OFS. "This means we can tailor the packages to significantly lower the cost of FTTx deployment to speed adoption of the technology."

In addition, the Access Advantage solution includes OFS’ award winning AllWave^® fiber and LaserWave^™ fiber to help lower the service provider’s cost per bit over the lifetime of the cabling system. AllWave fiber enables the use of coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) in the 1400 nm wavelength band to support lower cost services to businesses and homes connected to PONs or local Ethernet switches. LaserWave multimode fibers enable the use of lower cost optical transceivers to lower the cost for distributing connections from local Ethernet switches to homes and businesses.

"Access Advantage combines lowest cost per bit enabling AllWave and LaserWave fibers with flexible, cost effective cabling and apparatus to provide the optimum fiber to the home and business solution." said Janice Haber, Vice President, Systems Engineering at OFS. "For example, an Access Advantage PON using AllWave fiber can serve some business customers with a standard offering, while others can receive dedicated wavelengths using low cost CWDM technology."

The Access Advantage System is the ideal solution for Local Exchange Carriers and non-traditional carriers including municipalities, utility companies and real estate developers seeking to offer revenue generating FTTx service.

The Access Advantage System includes all the necessary elements: optical cable, apparatus, service training and field support. It supports all relevant industry standards, including the ITU G983.1 - Broadband PON (BPON), ITU G983.3 - broadband optical access system with increased service capability by wavelength allocation, the draft IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM), as well as proprietary implementations. In addition, all Access Advantage products comply with relevant ISO, Telcordia, IEC, and TIA standards for fiber, cable, and apparatus.

About OFS

OFS is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products for high-speed optical networks. OFS, formerly the optical fiber solutions division of Lucent Technologies Inc. [NYSE: LU], has a proven track record of being first in the industry with application specific fibers, optical connectors, ribbon cables, erbium doped fibers, Raman fiber lasers and more. OFS is committed to providing customers increased value by offering products that deliver lowest cost per bit network solutions, protecting investments through future flexible solutions.

OFS distributes its optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products directly to end users, as well as through valued distributors and external cable customers and equipment vendors.

OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications and majority shareholder, and CommScope, Inc., a world leader in broadband coaxial cables and minority shareholder. Headquartered in Norcross, GA, OFS operates facilities in Avon, Connecticut; Carrollton, Georgia; Omaha, Nebraska; Somerset, NJ; and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, as well as facilities in Denmark, Germany, Russia and Brazil.

For more information visit www.ofsoptics.com.