EXFO Receives US$1.6 Million Order From Tier-1 Network Service Provider

Business Wire, March 25, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2003

QUEBEC CITY, Canada--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 2003

EXFO (NASDAQ:EXFO)(TSX:EXF):

The bulk of the order consists of protocol-layer test instruments

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. announced today that it has received a US$1.6 million order from a prominent Tier-1 network service provider (NSP) for predominantly protocol-layer test equipment.

The NSP purchased 2.5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s SONET/SDH testers as well as optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs), which are contained inside EXFO's best-of-class FTB-400 field-testing platform, and optical loss test sets to ensure the integrity of its high-speed optical networks.

"This latest sale demonstrates that we're increasingly getting a foothold in the protocol-layer test market less than two years after our first acquisition in this space," said Germain Lamonde, Chairman, President and CEO of EXFO. "We also have received a number of product approvals from major accounts due to the benefits of having protocol-, optical- and physical-layer test solutions housed in the same PC-centric, Windows(R)-driven platform. This value-added solution not only allows field technicians to carry several test modules inside a single box, but it also provides them with a common graphical user interface to simplify training, lower costs and increase productivity.

"With our well-entrenched base of FTB platforms and test modules that we have constantly enhanced over the years, we have progressed to a solution that's in a class of its own."

During the past year, EXFO became the first fiber-optic test and measurement vendor to fully integrate protocol-, optical- and physical-layer testing capabilities inside a single platform.

Its SONET/SDH test modules are ideally suited for metro and access networks because they can handle transmission rates from OC-192 (10 Gb/s) down to DS0 (64 kb/s) in North America and STM-64 (10 Gb/s) down to E0 (64 kb/s) in Europe and abroad. The FTB-400 platform supports a wide range of protocols, such as SONET, SDH, T-Carrier, PDH, 10/100 Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, through easily exchangeable test modules.

Combined with a broad offering of high-end optical- and physical-layer test modules, including optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs), polarization mode dispersion (PMD) analyzers, chromatic dispersion (CD) analyzers and OTDRs - all contained inside a single unit - EXFO's all-in-one solution allows customers to future-proof their test systems.

EXFO's all-in-one test solution is currently on display at booth 2341 during OFC 2003 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. For more information about this test solution, visit EXFO's Web site at www.exfo.com.

About EXFO

EXFO is a leading designer and manufacturer of fiber-optic test, measurement, monitoring and automation solutions for the global telecommunications industry. EXFO markets more than 90 product families to 2000 customers in 70 countries around the world.

EXFO develops products for two main markets. The Portable and Monitoring Division provides handheld and modular instruments for the physical-, optical- and protocol-layer testing needs of telecommunications carriers and network service providers. The Industrial and Scientific Division offers an extensive line of high-performance instruments, test automation systems and manufacturing automation equipment for transmission system and optical component vendors as well as for research and development labs.