SAN JOSE, Calif., March 19, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today introduced the ONS 15200 product series, the first metropolitan dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) solution capable of delivering "wavelengths-to-the-building." The newest addition to Cisco's extensive IP+Optical portfolio is specifically optimized for the performance and cost requirements of the metropolitan environment, offering unrivalled supercharged wavelength services and unprecedented transport flexibility to enable service providers to achieve new revenue and profit via radical economics.

"The Cisco ONS 15200 DWDM series should hit the metro DWDM market pretty hard. Cisco is correctly addressing the need for increased service delivery in the metro space by combining multiservice access with metro DWDM transport," said Chris Nicoll, Vice President, Telecom Infrastructure at competitive intelligence firm Current Analysis. "By building on the unqualified success of the ONS 15454 and ONS 15327 multiservice delivery platforms, Cisco should get a fast market penetration for the ONS 15200 series in the over 500 customers currently using the ONS 15454."

Through the introduction of the ONS 15200 series, Cisco is addressing the market demand for increasing bandwidth and cost-effective delivery of diverse metropolitan transport services. Until now, to meet the ever increasing need for bandwidth service providers have had to decide between laying new fiber, which is expensive and time-consuming, and lighting new metro fiber with traditional "first generation" metro DWDM solutions. "First generation" metro DWDM solutions, characterized as re-purposed long-haul DWDM systems deployed in the metro space, have provided a temporary solution but are large, cumbersome to install and turn up, often expensive to operate, and offer little in the way of wavelength and sub wavelength aggregation. The new ONS 15200 series allows service providers to maximize existing fiber, quickly and cost-effectively.

"Cisco shares our vision to provide cost-effective, state-of-the-art telecommunications technology to our customers quickly," said Shawn Hill, director for Touch America Colorado. "We are excited to be the first to deploy the Cisco ONS 15200 series." Touch America Colorado, LLC, a subsidiary of TOUCHAMERICA, the broadband information subsidiary of The Montana Power Company (NYSE:MTP), is utilizing the new ONS 15200 series in conjunction with the market leading Cisco ONS 15454 Optical Transport Platform, and the Cisco ONS 15327 Metro Edge Optical Transport Platform, to develop an end-to-end metropolitan fiber optic broadband network in Denver that will launch in the second quarter.

The Cisco ONS 15200 series makes it possible for service providers to supercharge wavelength services, increase service density and achieve profitable economics through a number of unique features such as: the ability to add or drop wavelengths to customer premises in single increments, support for multiple network topologies, low power and space consumption, support for a combination of clear channel and transponder-based channels to aggregate wavelength and sub wavelength services, and interoperate seamlessly with existing metro optical transport gear such as SONET/SDH Add/Drop Multiplexors and high end routers. The ONS 15200 metro DWDM series enhances the metro capabilities of the ONS 15454 and the ONS 15327, as well as the full range of Cisco's DPT family of products and the Ethernet switching family.

"The new ONS 15200 series features a modular architecture which enables service providers to easily scale the system by installing channels, wavelength-by-wavelength, wherever and whenever traffic growth occurs," said Terry Brown, Vice President and General Manager for the Optical Transport Business Unit at Cisco. "The ONS 15200 also offers very low life cycle costs, allowing service providers to contain costs in today's highly competitive environment."

The Cisco ONS 15200 Metro DWDM series consists of three evolutionary platforms: the ONS 15252, ONS 15201, and ONS 15216. The ONS 15252 is a multichannel unit and the ONS 15201 is a single channel unit that combine to deliver wavelength services such as Gigabit Ethernet and OC-48 Packet Over SONET (POS) in a one-rack unit platform. The ONS 15216 platform provides optical filtering to combine wavelengths launched by the ONS 15454 and ONS 15327, optical add-drop multiplexing (OADM) to exchange wavelengths on SONET/SDH spans between the ONS 15252/201 and the ONS 15454, optical performance monitoring (OPM), and amplification to reach up to 400 Km.