News Release

Chunghwa Telecom's HiNet Selects Cisco Next Generation Internet Routers for its Backbone Network

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, August 15, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc., the
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Aug 15, 2001

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, August 15, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that HiNet, the data communications business group of Chunghwa Telecom, has selected Cisco as the key supplier of IP networking equipment to upgrade its backbone.

HiNet's network will use the Cisco 12000 Series Internet Router family as the foundation for its new IP backbone. Upgrading its network from cable transmission to higher performance optic fiber transmission, HiNet will leverage the carrier-class stability and the best-in-industry scalability and performance of the Cisco 12000 series Internet Router family. This innovative combination of features and capabilities make the Cisco 12000 family the premier choice for a simple upgrade path from OC-48/STM-16 to true 10Gbps OC-192/STM-64 IP+Optical infrastructures.

"Cisco's next generation Internet routing solution gives us the ability to efficiently grow our network and provide our customers with high bandwidth services," said Mr. Kuwei-Pi Hsu, president of Chunghwa Telecom Data Communication Business Group. "HiNet has more than 2.1 million dial-up users and 300,000 ADSL broadband users. Looking into the future, we plan to expand our customer base and provide more innovative services with the new network."

"HiNet will provide value-added services in seven categories, namely, lifestyle and entertainment, multimedia games, E-commerce, money and finance, education and training, communities and tools, and public service. Our services are designed to suit the needs and life style of the target group for each category," said Hsu.

"We are very pleased to be expanding our cooperation with HiNet and helping to implement its next generation IP backbone network using our next generation Internet routers," said Gordon Astles, President of Cisco Asia Pacific. "HiNet is a recognized leader in the Taiwanese marketplace. We are delighted to be working with HiNet on this major deployment. Our next generation Internet routers will help HiNet build revenue-generating new services today as well as provide investment protection for future growth."

The flagship Cisco 12000 series Internet routers are based on a unique distributed architecture that delivers the IP+Optical networking foundation and service building blocks to accelerate the evolution of the Internet. The Cisco 12000 family delivers the highest levels of scalability, and performance, and investment protection available today. Cisco 12000 Internet Routers are also the only systems capable of guaranteeing high priority packet delivery, which is critical to meet customers' increasing need for delivery of premium IP services. A recent report by Mier Labs (www.mier.com) demonstrated that the Cisco 12400 family delivers superior performance for delay-sensitive traffic such as VoIP and video relative to competitive offerings.