FONS Corporation and British Telecommunications Plc Enter Into Royalty Agreement; FONS Strengthens Position in $400 Million Optical Coupler Market

Business Wire, March 15, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

NORTHBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2001

Fiber Optic Network Solutions (FONS) Corporation, a leading manufacturer of passive optical components and interconnect solutions, announced today that it has signed a license agreement with British Telecommunications plc (BT) to integrate BT's patented technology into its proprietary manufacturing processes. Utilizing its advanced automated manufacturing equipment, FONS has incorporated the BT technology to further enable its high volume production of fused products. For more information on FONS Corporation's extensive offering of optical cassette modules (OCMs) and optical components, visit booth #3238 at OFC 2001 in Anaheim California where the company will be exhibiting March 19-21, or the company website at www.fons.com.

"Fused components are used for the splitting and combining of signals in high capacity transport networks in a variety of topologies including long haul, metropolitan and access markets", states Michael J. Noonan, President and CEO of FONS. "The key to FONS' fused products is our successful development of proprietary semi-automated manufacturing equipment and processes, enabling us to exponentially increase our capacity capabilities, while continuing to deliver exceptional reliability and low cost manufacturing. Our agreement with BT provides us the foundation from which to build and capitalize on the continued demand for fused products from a broad range of customers including service providers, telephony companies and network equipment OEMs. We are pleased to be associated with BT and look forward to a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship."

"BT is very pleased with its agreement", said Roy Woodfine, Vice President of BT Ignite, Broadband responsible for commercializing a portfolio of these patents. "This gives FONS a strong competitive position allowing them to capitalize on the demands in the rapidly expanding market for optical telecommunications products."

FONS' product line of fused wideband couplers, tapered taps, and course WDMs are available individually or packaged in an optical cassette module, offering customers fast, cost effective solutions for any network configuration. The family of products currently includes 1x2 and 2x2 port configurations, available with either 250um fiber or 900um loose tube leads, and features low insertion loss to ensure maximum performance in all types of fiber optic networks.

About FONS Corporation (www.fons.com)

FONS Corporation's portfolio of products includes fused technology based optical components and micro-optic packaged modules including splitters, taps and filter-based DWDMs. The company's broad, vertically integrated product line also encompasses industry standard fiber optic connectivity hardware and components such as cable assemblies, connectors, enclosures, pre-wired enclosures and frames. FONS Corporation's blue-chip customer portfolio consists of key players in the Network Equipment OEM, Service Provider and Data Communication industries. The company's engineering and manufacturing facilities total over 145,000 square feet worldwide, housing state of the art clean rooms, advanced automated manufacturing equipment and R&D laboratories.

About British Telecommunications plc (www.bt.com)

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is one of the world's leading providers of telecommunications services. Its principal activities include local, long distance and international telecommunications services, mobile communications, Internet services and IT solutions. In the United Kingdom, BT serves 28 million exchange lines and more than seven million mobile customers as well as providing network services to other licensed operators. More information can be found on the BT website at www.bt.com.

FONS Corporation

30 Forbes Road

Northboro, MA 01612

508-393-4268