Portugal's NetRail Selects Alcatel's TeraLight Metro Optical Fiber; Alcatel to supply 40,000 km of optical fiber to upgrade NetRail's network infrastructure

Business Wire, Jan 16, 2002

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2002

Alcatel (NYSE: ALA), a world leader in intelligent optical networking, today announced a supply agreement with NetRail, a telecom service provider wholly owned by REFER, Portugal's Rail Infrastructure Manager.

In the course of the Portuguese telecommunications market's liberalization, NetRail is rapidly enhancing and upgrading its existing network infrastructure. As NetRail's sole supplier, Alcatel will supply more than 40,000 kilometers of cabled optical fiber, including both Alcatel's TeraLight Metro and standard singlemode fibers.

TeraLight Metro is Alcatel's Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber (NZ-DSF) optimized for applications in networks covering distances between 70 and 200 kilometers. Designed for operating in systems carrying densely packed data at high transmission rates, TeraLight Metro features especially low attenuation, or signal loss. TeraLight Metro's efficient and cost saving design allows it to carry optical transmissions without the need for adding several signal regeneration or compensation devices.

Originally looking for multiple suppliers and for standard single mode fibers only, NetRail was impressed by the high performance of TeraLight Metro and its potential to evolve with their needs over time. Additionally, Alcatel's responsiveness and ability to meet NetRail's tight deadlines were deciding factors in closing the deal.

"Our ability to provide innovative optical fiber solutions that can be cost-effectively upgraded to meet future bandwidth demands will ensure that NetRail is well positioned in the Portuguese market," said Jacques Blanc, President of Alcatel's optical fiber activities.

TeraLight Metro is based on Alcatel's proven TeraLight technology, which has set many transmission capacity records, including 10.2Tbit/s transmission at 40Gbit/s. Alcatel introduced TeraLight, its leading-edge NZ-DSF, over two years ago, and it has been successfully deployed by a number of major operators globally. When linked with Alcatel's TeraLight Ultra, an NZ-DSF for long-haul applications, TeraLight Metro provides network operators with a transparent transition between network segments, simplifying network design. TeraLight products are fully compliant with ITU's G.655 standard.

About NetRail

NetRail is a commercial entity for the deployment, management, operation and exploitation of Telecom infrastructures and systems, as well Telecommunication services provision. NetRail is currently installing an optical fiber network and an STM-16 backbone along 2.500 Km of the Portuguese territory.

Contact: Mr. Alberto Passos, Tel: 351 21 891 04 15 - e-mail: atpassos@refertelecom.pt

About Alcatel

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With sales of EURO 27 billion in 2000 and 110,000 employees, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.