OptiMight Unveils First Raman-less Product for Long Haul and Ultra-Long Haul Networks.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2001

OMC 1600(TM) based on Full-Spectrum WDM(TM) technology platform

restores profitability to carriers' long-distance networks

OptiMight Communications today unveiled its flagship

product, the OMC 1600(TM), the first Raman-less core optical transport product incorporating the company's Full Spectrum WDM technology. The high-capacity OMC 1600(TM) enables carriers to send up to 1.6 terabits/second over any type of fiber without using regenerators or Raman amplifiers. Unlike other solutions, the OMC 1600(TM) ranges from 400 to 4000 km, allowing carriers to transmit their long and ultra-long haul traffic over a single product platform.

OptiMight's product platform is designed to restore profitability to carriers' long-distance networks. Carriers currently face rising demand for bandwidth, as well as rising equipment and operating costs. The OMC 1600(TM) allows carriers to increase network capacity while decreasing expenditures. Customer economic analyses show that OptiMight's Full-Spectrum WDM products can save carriers effectively 60% more on equipment and operating costs than alternative solutions. Because the OMC 1600(TM) is viable for regional, long and ultra-long haul applications, carriers can use one set of Full-Spectrum WDM equipment to create a single network covering various connection distances.

"Carriers are continually searching for solutions that will help them decrease their equipment expenditures while improving their economic structure and network profitability," said Voltaire Cacal, Senior Analyst, Optical Networks, for RHK. "With long-haul carriers now looking for equipment to more cost-effectively build express networks, there is a need to bring in technologies that will extend optical signals even further in order to cut electrical regeneration costs. Yet, with the need to engineer networks for both long-haul and ultra-long-haul transmission, carriers may find single platforms which can handle both types of networks to be operationally beneficial."

The versatility of OptiMight's product platform is an important advantage over other technologies. Roughly 80% of carriers' network connections are shorter than 1800 km, a distance at which traditional WDM and Raman-based solutions are too costly and impractical to implement. Full-Spectrum WDM products, however, hit the carriers' "sweet spot" -- the 1000 to 1500 km range where the majority of their connections exist.

The OMC 1600(TM) provides other benefits to carriers. It eliminates expensive regenerators and Raman amplifiers; keeps traditional deployment and maintenance rules in place; is easy to upgrade; transmits bi-directionally; and reduces operating costs. The product also is fiber agnostic. It is effective over carriers' legacy fiber -- even fiber affected by polarization mode dispersion (PMD) -- as well as newly laid fiber. In addition, the OMC 1600(TM) provides 1.6 terabits of capacity over a single fiber, not the fiber pair typically required by other systems.

"OptiMight offers a disruptive technology that will change the dynamics of carrier economics," said Dr. Ilya Fishman, OptiMight's President and CTO. "OptiMight's product platform meets carriers' need for decreased equipment and operating costs while simultaneously increasing capacity."

The OMC 1600(TM) will debut at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference 2001 (OFC) in Anaheim, CA, March 19-21, at the Anaheim Convention Center, Booth 200.

About OptiMight(TM) Communications

OptiMight Communications provides the first core optical transport solution powered by Full-Spectrum WDM(TM). Founded by visionary physicist Ilya Fishman and industry veteran Wu-Fu Chen, OptiMight is developing core optical transport systems with integrated network management capabilities to provide unprecedented capacity, network flexibility, dramatic cost reductions and powerful competitive advantages for global carriers. OptiMight's technology platform is scalable over a wide range of distances including regional, long haul and ultra-long haul.

OptiMight is a privately held company that received initial funding in February of 1999. The company most recently secured $32.5 million in its second round of financing. OptiMight's combined experience and knowledge of optical networking and telecommunications resulted in the development of its Full-Spectrum WDM technology. The company has over 120 employees on staff at its facility in San Jose, California.

For more information about OptiMight Communications, contact Clarel Thevenot at 408/382-7340 or visit the web site at http://www.optimight.com.

OMC 1600, Full-Spectrum WDM and OptiMight are trademarks of OptiMight Communications.