CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA, SAN JOSE, Calif., October 31, 2001 - Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that BIG PIPE Inc. (BIG PIPE), the network backbone division of Shaw Communications Inc. (Shaw), will deploy industry-leading, next-generation Cisco routers on its national IP backbone. This will enable BIG PIPE to provide OC-192 bandwidth of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). BIG PIPE will be the first Canadian carrier to deliver OC-192 throughput across its IP backbone, providing unparalleled capacity and performance to its customers.

The next generation Cisco 12410 and 12416 Internet Routers will enable BIG PIPE to deliver added capacity, performance, and scalability while reducing operational costs. Cisco's routers will facilitate the bandwidth necessary to provide next-generation IP services such as MPLS-based VPNs, IP QoS, and Voice over IP (VoIP).

"Our goal is to provide unparalleled high-speed Internet service to our customers. We chose Cisco to help us build our high-speed network because their next-generation Internet routers deliver industry-leading performance and scalability that we just couldn't get from other vendors," said Greg MacLean, Vice President and General Manager, of BIG PIPE Inc.

BIG PIPE is currently experiencing tremendous growth, due in large part to record demand for Shaw's High Speed Internet service, which has a growing customer base of over 630,000.

"Service providers today must differentiate themselves and provide value-added applications to their customers," said Pierre-Paul Allard, Managing Director at Cisco Systems Canada. "BIG PIPE's construction of Canada's first commercial OC-192 IP backbone will position them to deliver innovative services to their fast growing base of customers."

"With the industry's only distributed system architecture, the Cisco 12000 Series delivers unmatched performance, scalability, and flexibility. BIG PIPE understands the value of the investment protection the Cisco 12400 Internet router delivers, which allows them to develop an IP infrastructure that supports value-added services and applications," said Roland Acra, group vice president and general manager in Cisco's Internet Routing Group.

The Cisco 12000 Series Internet Router is part of Cisco's family of multimillion packets-per-second (pps) Internet routing platforms for creating a full service Internet. The Cisco 12000 Series is the premier Internet routing platform for service provider backbone and high-speed edge applications and enables service providers to meet the challenge of building IP networks to satisfy customer demands while increasing profitability. The Cisco 12000 Series offers the only portfolio of 10Gbps/OC-192 systems with the capacity, performance, service enablers, and operational efficiencies to build the most competitive IP networks. With its unique, modular distributed system architecture, the Cisco 12000 Series leads the industry with the only proven investment protection, the highest backbone and edge performance, and the only guaranteed priority packet delivery.