STOCKHOLM, Sweden, November 15, 2006 - Cisco® announced today that residents in the southern Swedish communities of Lunds Kommunala Bostäder (www.lkf.se) and Allbohus (www.allbohus.se) in Alvesta will benefit from one of the fastest broadband networks in Europe, based on the Cisco IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture. The fiber optic network, connecting 12,000 households in the region, is based on Cisco Ethernet Fiber-to-the-Home (E-FTTH) technology and delivers upstream and downstream access speeds up to 1 gigabit per second optimized for residential triple-play services incorporating Internet, IP telephony and IPTV services. With such high bandwidth, residents in Lund and Alvesta can enjoy the latest high-definition (HD) IPTV services and look forward to advanced multimedia services such as video telephony. Dimension Data Sverige A.B., a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, is responsible for system integration on this project. Management and operation of the network and service delivery will be provided by Labs2/ViaEuropa.

Jonas Birgersson, CEO of Labs2, said: "Our 'BRIKKS' system platform, combined with Cisco's Equal Access Network model, means that our customers can have easy access to all the services on offer. This gives our customers the capability to create their own service packages whenever they want. At the same time, our service provider partners can reach a large installed base of customers with the highest quality access."

"We developed the ServiceFlex design for our Carrier Ethernet solutions to give operators such as Labs2 a highly secure, reliable and flexible platform that supports both residential and business services," said Jonas Phragmén, business development manager for Broadband at Cisco Sweden. "Lab2 can also scale the network in terms of bandwidth and capacity to meet demand and provide assured quality of service, even at bandwidths as high as 1 Gbps."

The networks are designed to conform to the security requirements stipulated by The Swedish Urban Network Association (www.ssnf.org). Cisco 7600 Series Routers, Cisco Catalyst® 3750 Series and Catalyst 3650 Series Switches with E-FTTH fiber access links will be deployed in the networks at Lund and Alvesta with the recently launched ME3400 Series Metro Ethernet switches at the customer premises in multi-tenant buildings and business sites.