ADC Wins CopperTen Contract with ABSA Bank for Large Data Centre in South Africa

Business Wire, March 21, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS -- ABSA Bank Deploys CopperTen, the World's First Structured Cabling System to Offer 10 Gigabit/s Capability over Unshielded Twisted Pair

ADC (NASDAQ:ADCT; www.adc.com) announced today that it has won a contract from the ABSA Bank in South Africa to supply the CopperTen(TM) structured cabling system. The CopperTen solution is the first to provide 10 Gigabit/s capability over Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP). The new system has been successfully installed at ABSA Bank to connect all servers and firewall systems within its data centre. It will also be used to integrate ABSA's internal network and ABSA's dedicated client network, both linked to the data centre. ABSA Bank is one of South Africa's leading financial services organizations and has the largest Internet banking customer base in the country.

"We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with ADC for many years," said Neville Perry, network architect for ABSA Bank. "With the rapid growth in Internet banking, it has been necessary for us to explore the most robust, high-performance and future-proof technology available in the industry and we chose ADC's latest solution, CopperTen. We strongly believe that deploying CopperTen is crucial to delivering mission-critical services to our retail and corporate customers throughout South Africa now and in the future."

"This is a milestone for ADC, not only because this is our first CopperTen sale in South Africa but because the deployment of the solution at ABSA Bank represents the first LAN network to support 10 Gigabit/s over copper both in South Africa and across the entire African continent," said Richard Worth, general manager for South Africa for ADC KRONE. "We look forward to working with ABSA Bank to help them deliver the highest levels of service, which their customers have come to expect and on which they have built their superior reputation in the financial services marketplace."

ADC's CopperTen solution enables users to install a system today that works with existing 10/100/1000 Mbit/s equipment and yet has the capacity for 10 Gigabit/s when the electronics are introduced this coming year. All ADC CopperTen cables, connectors, patch panels, and patch cords also exceed the TIA/EIA and ISO standards for Category 6. As a result, they can be used as a direct replacement for existing Cat 6 systems ensuring full backward compatibility.

Since ADC launched CopperTen in March 2004, it has been successfully deployed throughout the world in a wide range of organizations including banks, financial institutions, universities, law firms, engineering consultancies, aerospace companies and one of the world's leading animation studios.

For further information on ADC's Enterprise Networking Solutions, please visit www.adc.com.

About ABSA

The Absa Group is one of South Africa's largest financial services organizations, serving personal, commercial and corporate customers in South Africa. The Group also provides products and services to selected markets in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Africa.

As at 31 March 2004, Absa had more than 31 000 staff, assets of R307 billion, 668 full and subsidiary outlets, more than 4 500 ATMs and South Africa's largest Internet banking customer base.

Learn more about ABSA Bank at www.absa.co.za

About ADC

ADC provides the connections for wireline, wireless, cable, broadcast and enterprise networks around the world. ADC's innovative network infrastructure equipment and professional services enable high-speed Internet, data, video, and voice services to residential, business and mobile subscribers. ADC (NASDAQ:ADCT) has sales into more than 150 countries. Learn more about ADC at www.adc.com.