SAN JOSE, Calif., February 11, 2002 - Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that AT&T has deployed the Cisco ONS 15454 SONET Multiservice Platform and Cisco Transport Manager, components of Cisco's Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) portfolio, in its nationwide intelligent optical network. Currently connecting more than 40 cities nationwide and carrying live customer traffic, the carrier's new intelligent optical network will carry Private Line, Internet, voice, data and video traffic while restoring service faster in the event of a failure or disaster and significantly improving service delivery intervals.

"With these Cisco platforms at the edge of our intelligent optical network, AT&T is able to maximize service variety, bringing all types of traffic to our customers cost-effectively, densely packed onto single fibers while significantly improving service velocity through rapid and efficient provisioning," said George W. Gawrys, director of transport network planning, AT&T Laboratories. "AT&T continues its leadership in optical networking by deploying these next-generation technologies to build a revolutionary intelligent optical network and deliver even greater value to our customers."

After a comprehensive evaluation, AT&T chose the Cisco products because their functionality matched AT&T's reliability and operational requirements. Systems passed rigorous certification testing at the AT&T Laboratories in New Jersey and are now carrying live customer traffic on the AT&T network.

"Cisco understands the extreme importance of reliability and high availability in today's service provider networks. Information is rapidly becoming the most valuable asset to the enterprise customer, and having access to that information from anywhere, at anytime, is crucial to business success," said Bill Nuti, senior vice president, worldwide service provider operations, Cisco Systems. "Meeting the rigorous certification requirements of AT&T Laboratories is a significant achievement that underscores Cisco's commitment to our service provider customers."

The market-leading Cisco ONS 15454 is a key building block of AT&T's intelligent optical network. In this deployment, the ONS 15454 provides efficient multi-service aggregation of lower-rate customer traffic up to high-speed (OC-48 or OC-192) pipes for routing across the network. The ONS 15454 also delivers bandwidth scalability in a low-cost, small footprint system that automatically provisions circuits at a variety of bit-rate speeds (from 1.5 Mbps to 10 Gbps, and Gigabit Ethernet). Cisco Transport Manager, the single integrated optical element management system for the entire Cisco COMET portfolio, provides efficient automation of provisioning and maintenance functions for the ONS 15454. As part of AT&T's intelligent optical network, more than 100 Cisco ONS 15454 platforms are deployed today, with significantly more planned for the future. Some of these will be installed on customers' premises and others in the AT&T metropolitan and long-distance networks.

"AT&T's revolutionary nationwide intelligent optical network harnesses the capabilities of today's leading technologies to bring greater productivity to customers through efficient delivery of high value services," said Jayshree Ullal, group vice president, optical networking group, Cisco Systems. "This deployment also marks a strategic milestone for Cisco as we continue to drive innovation through the Cisco COMET optical strategy to meet the unique requirements of our service provider customers."

Through its Cisco COMET strategy and portfolio, Cisco develops innovative technologies to help drive profitability and productivity for its service provider and enterprise customers. With carrier class functionality, products like the ONS 15454 are designed to meet the stringent criteria for quality, reliability and flexibility while enabling greater service velocity and variety.

About Cisco's Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport Portfolio

The Cisco Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) product line offers maximum service velocity, density, variety, and capacity, building the foundation to accelerate IP+Optical networking. Supporting TDM, Ethernet, IP, Storage, and Wavelength services over SONET and DWDM with integrated bandwidth management and end-to-end provisioning, the Cisco COMET portfolio offers efficient, unprecedented flexibility and capacity. With the Cisco COMET portfolio, enterprises and service providers drive profitability and accelerate IP+Optical networking.