Press Releases

SALIRA IS FIRST EPON EQUIPMENT VENDOR TO ATTAIN METRO ETHERNET FORUM (MEF) CARRIER ETHERNET CERTIFICATION

Certification Instrumental for Service Providers to Achieve Network-wide MEF Compliance

SANTA CLARA – April 24, 2008 – Salira Systems, Inc., the leading provider of standards-compliant Gigabit-level Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) systems, today announced that Salira is the first EPON vendor to attain MEF-9 and MEF-14 certification status for its Carrier Ethernet services. MEF-14 certification is the first global program to test for QoS conformance, which is critical for delivering stringent service level agreements to enterprise customers. This important certification is sanctioned by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an international industry consortium dedicated to world-wide adoption of Carrier Ethernet networks and services. The rigorous certification testing was conducted by Iometrix Test Laboratory.

"For many compelling reasons, enterprise customers are moving more of their mission-critical applications to Ethernet-based networks," said André Martineau, Senior Director, Business Solutions for Advance Newhouse Communications. "As this migration continues, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that our networks are Carrier Ethernet compliant. Salira's MEF-9 and MEF-14 certifications are an important contribution to meeting our customers' needs."

MEF certification is critical as service providers seek to create networks that are fully-compliant with all MEF standards for Carrier Ethernet. MEF's mission states that Ethernet Services for metro transport networks shall be delivered over native Ethernet-based Metro networks. Carrier Ethernet services then operate independently from the physical network, simplifying expansion to new technologies. In the Metro and Access segments of the network, Ethernet is becoming the protocol of choice as the movement away from Frame-based services accelerates.

"Our service provider customers made it clear that MEF certification for Carrier Ethernet was important to them," noted Jeff Stribling, VP Marketing and Customer Service for Salira. "The processing power and intelligence that we've built into our system architecture enabled us to quickly certify value-added Carrier Ethernet services such as E-Line and E-LAN that are critical to enterprise end-users."

Salira's products are based on the IEEE 802.3ah protocols for Ethernet PON (EPON). The company's standards-compliant EPON platform is ideally-suited for the high-speed transmission of voice and data – the most critical applications for business customers. Salira is also working with service providers worldwide to deliver IPTV, High Speed Internet Access and VOIP to consumers, all while driving cost out of the network.

About Salira Systems, Inc.
Based in Santa Clara, California, Salira is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Communication Technologies, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT). Salira builds standards-compliant Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON or EPON) systems that are used to deliver advanced IP-based broadband services (voice, video and data) to both business and consumer end-users. For more about the company, visit http://www.salira.com.

About Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks is the nation's sixth largest MSO with 2.4 million customers in several large markets including Bakersfield, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; Orlando, Florida (Central Florida Division) and Tampa Bay, Florida along with several other smaller systems in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The high-growth Tampa/Central Florida markets are contiguous and form one of the country's largest cable clusters. BHN's corporate locations are in Orlando, Florida and Syracuse, New York.