Teltrend Signs OEM Agreement With Next Level Communications for Special Service Telephone Modules

Business Wire, Sept 15, 1997

ST. CHARLES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 15, 1997--Teltrend Inc. (Nasdaq:TLTN) announced today that it has signed a five-year OEM Agreement with Next Level Communications, (NLC) a wholly owned subsidiary of NextLevel Systems, Inc. (NYSE:NLV), to design and supply a variety of special service circuit cards for NLC's Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) Universal Service Access Multiplexer (USAM). The DLC USAM is one of the products within NLC's NLevel3 Switched Digital Access (SDA) system that supports narrowband DLC services and broadband xDSL technologies. Teltrend will design and supply a number of different types of special service telephone modules, these include 2 Wire analog specials, 4 Wire analog specials and Digital Data Services.

Teltrend's experience in the design of specials services for the local loop telephone market will allow NLC to integrate a full suite of telephony services, including POTS, ISDN and COIN along with special services into NLC's DLC USAM. Teltrend will incorporate its circuit designs to work with the NLC broadband interface. The USAM will be sold throughout the telephony industry including: RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies), independent telephone companies, and CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers). Presently, NLC holds a contract with NYNEX and U S WEST to deploy the NLevel3 SDA system.

Teltrend will combine its expertise in special services line card technology with NLC's expertise in both telephony and broadband communications to develop and design highly integrated products for use in next-generation DLC and broadband access systems with integrated voice, data and video service capabilities.

Teltrend Inc., based in suburban Chicago, designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of local loop provisioning products used by telephone companies to provide voice and data services over the telephone network. The Company's products are sold to the Regional Bell Operating Companies, GTE, Sprint, and other U.S. and International telephone companies. Teltrend's World Wide Web address is http://www.teltrend.com

Next Level Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NextLevel Systems, Inc., builds full service digital loop carrier and broadband access and management systems and customer premises equipment for the communications industry.

NextLevel Systems, Inc. is a leading worldwide supplier of systems and components for high-performance communications networks delivering video, voice and Internet/data services. Created by the three-way split of General Instrument Corporation, NextLevel Systems is comprised of three businesses that are leaders in distinct global markets: the Broadband Networks Group, based in Hatboro, PA.; the Satellite Data Networks Group, based in San Diego, CA; and Next Level Communications, based in Rohnert Park, CA NextLevel Systems, headquartered in Chicago, posted revenues of $1.8 billion in 1996 and employs more than 8,300 people worldwide. Visit us at our Web Site -- http://www.nlvl.com

NOTE TO EDITORS: There is an "at" symbol following "dhoffmeyer" and "tdehaas" in the e-mail addresses below. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: Teltrend Inc.

Douglas Hoffmeyer, 630/377-1700

dhoffmeyer@teltrend.com

or

Next Level Communications

Tracy de Haas, 707/584-6565

tdehaas@nlc.com