NComm and Agere Systems Announce First Complete WAN Solution for SDH Transport and Automatic Protection Switching

Telica deploys new solution for softswitch-based voice and data services

SUPERCOMM, Atlanta, Georgia-- June 2, 2003 -- NComm, Inc. and Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A, AGR.B) today announced the availability of a complete, standards-based wide area network (WAN) interface solution for SDH transport and automatic protection switching (APS). The addition of SDH support to the Agere/NComm joint solution makes it the only single chip and software product that encompasses multinational, low and high-speed technologies including T1/E1, T3/E3, SONET, SONET APS, and now SDH and SDH APS. It is also the industry's only solution which allows equipment vendors to use one platform to interface with both the optical core and copper-based technologies on the access link, enabling wireless and wireline applications. In doing so, equipment makers ensure reliability, flexibility, and interoperability while realizing significant development time and cost savings.

"The addition of SDH and SDH APS to Agere's FlexMap™ mapper product family, together with NComm's management software, brings a new level of flexibility to equipment vendors and their customers in terms of WAN options," said C. Michael Wallace, product manager for mappers with Agere Systems. "This solution is a turnkey and proven product that allows vendors to take advantage of new market opportunities quickly and cost-effectively," he said. "It will enable enterprise WAN or service provider equipment makers to quickly support new WAN transports as required by the customer without wholesale upgrades of the hardware and software."

The integrated WAN interface solution consists of Ultramapper™ hardware products from Agere and NComm's Telecommunications Management Software™ (TMS), supporting T1/E1, T3/E3, SONET, SONET APS, SDH and SDH APS. Agere's Ultramapper products provide the framing, mapping and multiplexing functions of physical transport. NComm TMS manages the overhead of physical transport including alarms, maintenance and performance monitoring. The solution enables equipment makers to quickly add functionality to systems with proven, standards-compliant WAN interfaces, but without the cost and risk associated with in-house Layer 1 engineering development.

"The most basic requirement of telecommunications and data communications services is the reliable operation of the WAN transport, often considered a weak link by service providers. As upper layer wireless and wireline application services are being rolled out, if the WAN link is not functioning properly or not interoperable, the services will fail," said John Brandte, vice president of marketing and business development for NComm. "NComm TMS integrated with Agere's Ultramapper platform not only brings unprecedented flexibility and cost savings, but also guarantees proper functioning and interoperability of the physical layer."

Reliability, availability and interoperability in the WAN are becoming increasingly crucial as new consumer and mission critical business services ride on the WAN transport layer, nesting DS-0s within T1/E1, within T3/E3, within the optical transport. If the physical layer doesn't work, nothing works. Agere and NComm address the increasing complexity by bringing to market a product that ensures proper functioning of the WAN, including protection switching, and the seamless delivery of telecommunications and data communications services over multiple transports.

Telica, Inc., a leading provider of softswitch-based, intelligent voice switching solutions, is using the Agere/NComm solution in its Plexus™ 9000 platform. "The flexibility of the Agere/Ncomm solution allows Telica to quickly add a variety of reliable WAN interfaces to our products as customer requirements arise, in this case SDH," said Joe Quinlivan, Vice President of Engineering at Telica. "When proven products are available, utilizing off-the-shelf technology allows us to focus internal resources on further development of our core, differentiating technology. Agere and NComm delivered a complete, standards-based, and highly interoperable solution that has saved Telica time and development costs."

Pricing for an NComm TMS software license starts at $20,000 per type of interface.

About NComm

NComm provides network equipment vendors with proven, standards-compliant Wide Area Networking (WAN) source code, software, and custom engineering. Its TMS trunk management suite enables faster time-to-market for network systems by reducing the development time for WAN interfaces from months to hours. The suite includes the turnkey software and source code to embed into WAN equipment, which performs all the framer, alarming, performance monitoring, line testing, and signaling functions that all WAN devices or products must have to operate. NComm, privately held and based in Salem, Hew Hampshire, has customers ranging from start-ups to well-established communications companies such as ADC, 3Com, Sonus and Telica. For more information, please visit the NComm website at www.ncomm.com.

About Telica

Telica provides softswitch-based voice and data switching products for today's evolving telecommunications networks. The company's Plexus™ 9000 is a carrier-grade system that includes a media gateway, media gateway controller and signaling gateway to provide Class 4/5 switching for the PSTN as well as ATM and IP networks -- all in a distributed softswitch model or an integrated open solution. Breakthrough levels of performance, reliability and scalability assure the highest quality of service while easily accommodating subscriber growth. Telica, founded in 1998 and currently deployed with 35 customers, is headquartered in Marlboro, MA, with offices throughout the United States and Canada. For more information on Telica, visit www.telica.com.

Agere Systems, FlexMap and Ultramapper are registered trademarks of Agere Systems Inc. NComm and NComm TMS are trademarks of NComm, Inc.