SALIRA ANNOUNCES FIRST CUSTOMER SHIPMENT TO US SIGNAL

Leading Provider of Optical Access Systems Achieves NEBS Certification and Declares General Availability of Salira 2000 Platform

SANTA CLARA, CA – OCTOBER 28, 2002 – Salira Optical Network Systems, a leading provider of optical access systems, today announced First Customer Shipment (FCS) of the Salira 2000 Platform™ to US Signal, a debt-free regional carrier providing broadband services to business customers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The Salira 2000 Platform is the industry’s first intelligent Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) platform for Fiber-to-the-Business (FTTB) to combine support for native-mode TDM services and standards-based IP services. Following extensive testing at the company’s facilities, US Signal is deploying the Salira 2000 Platform in its network to connect customers to the fiber-optic transport that it has deployed and lit throughout the region.

“Our approach to serving business customers is to identify a need and then profitably fulfill that need,” said Barry Raterink, president of US Signal. “We have an extensive long-haul network and a dense metro presence. We’re looking for ways to cost-effectively connect customers to that transport capacity. Salira’s systems deliver the right set of economics in the access portion of the network.”

US Signal began the successful lab trial of the Salira 2000 Platform in May 2002 before the product was introduced at SuperComm in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2002. The Salira 2000 Platform consists of the Salira 2500™, a high port-density optical line terminal, and the Salira 2300™, the industry’s first multi-customer optical network unit. The Salira Access Management (SAM)™ system combines service creation, EMS and subscriber management in one integrated software suite. The Salira 2000 Platform leverages Ethernet’s simplicity and scalability to reduce the cost of provisioning broadband services to business customers, while providing the bandwidth capacity only available with fiber-based transport.

“The shipment to US Signal is an important milestone for Salira,” said Herb Martin, Salira’s president and CEO. “We have passed the technical testing conducted by a leading service provider, and proven the business case associated with our product. We look forward to further demonstrating the value of our systems as we help provision service to US Signal’s customers in the Midwest.”

Salira Achieves NEBS Certification

Salira also announced that the company has fully completed all testing required to achieve Network Equipment Building Specification (NEBS) certification for the Salira 2000 Platform™. Following rigorous testing by MET Laboratories, a nationally-recognized testing laboratory, the platform successfully completed all NEBS requirements for safety and environmental performance. The Salira 2500™, the platform’s Central Office-based equipment, is NEBS Level 3 compliant meaning that it carries the highest assurance of product operability and ensures minimal service interruptions. The Salira 2300™, the platform’s customer premises-based equipment, is NEBS Level 1 compliant. This certification ensures that the device will not degrade a service provider’s network facility or endanger personnel. NEBS certification is an exacting test process that is designed to guarantee service providers the highest levels of equipment performance and reliability. The certification process includes resiliency testing in such areas as EMI/EMC, temperature, humidity, altitude, fire, earthquake, vibration, lightning surge and power fault.

Salira Declares General Availability

Based on NEBS certification, Salira declared “General Availability” of the Salira 2000 Platform to the domestic and international service provider community. Salira continues to conduct lab and market trials with a wide variety of service providers, and the company indicated that its manufacturing and customer support activities are ready to support live deployments of the Salira 2000 Platform.

Salira Exhibits Salira 2000 Platform at PT Expo in Beijing, China

The announcements came as Salira began exhibiting the Salira 2000 Platform for the first time in Asia at the PT Expo trade show in Beijing, China from October 29-November 2 (Hall 6, Booth #6399). Salira will demonstrate the platform’s unique technical capabilities, such as native-mode handling of TDM services, in addition to the economic case that service providers can expect to derive from implementing the system. Salira’s systems were developed with global design elements that make the Salira 2000 Platform suitable for world-wide deployment. The system employs software-adjustable T1/E1 ports and full support for standards-based Fast Ethernet service to serve virtually all domestic and international markets.

About US Signal
US Signal is a full-service fiber-optic solutions provider, offering a wide range of telecommunications services to wholesale and enterprise customers throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The US Signal debt-free, fiber-optic network is the largest, fully-deployed network in the Midwest and offers 2,500 miles of lit fiber and 14 strategic metro rings. US Signal offers unlimited high-speed capacity, dark fiber and collocation services, and also works with customers to design and build new network construction projects. For more information visit www.ussignalcom.com.

About Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Salira builds broadband systems that are used to deliver advanced voice, video and data services to business and residential customers. Salira’s systems give carriers the ability to offer traditional TDM services and advanced IP-based broadband services in one integrated, cost-effective system. Salira Shanghai, Ltd., a subsidiary of Salira, performs manufacturing, R&D and customer support functions, and has responsibility for marketing and sales in the Asia Pacific region.