SDN Communications Selects Infinera to Simplify Business Connectivity in South Dakota

SDN Communications has selected an Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) Digital Optical Network to simplify communications and service delivery for its local telecom, research and education, and wholesale customers in South Dakota.

Based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, SDN Communications is an independent regional interexchange carrier owned by South Dakota's 18 independent local telephone companies. SDN provides telecom and data services to its members, the state government of South Dakota, the South Dakota Research Education and Economic Development (REED) network as well as wholesale services to other interexchange carriers and wireless telecom companies.

Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization(TM) will enable SDN to deliver services more quickly to its customers because the unique Infinera architecture puts in place a pool of available bandwidth that can be provisioned or reconfigured in software to meet customer demand. Interchangeable client-side modules enable SDN to offer a wide range of services over a single Infinera infrastructure. SDN is seeing increased demand for its services due to growing consumer demand for Internet video and video-on-demand, and growing enterprise demand from sectors like finance and health care for connectivity to large regional data centers.

SDN chief executive officer Mark Shlanta said that Infinera's network will enable SDN to speed up its delivery of services to customers, as compared to the 60 to 120 days it may take to provision a new wavelength on a traditional DWDM system. "We position ourselves in the marketplace as the provider that offers 'businessimplification' -- a phrase we coined to demonstrate how we simplify our customers' businesses by offering more services more quickly and more cost-effectively. Infinera's network technology takes us to the next level of delivering on that promise," said Mr. Shlanta.

"We are very pleased to support SDN Communications and the business and educational communities of South Dakota with an Infinera Digital Optical Network," said Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh.

The Infinera DTN is a digital ROADM combining in a single platform scalable optical transport, digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence.

About Infinera

Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers worldwide. Infinera's systems are unique in their use of a breakthrough semiconductor technology: the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Infinera's systems and PIC technology are designed to provide optical networks with simpler and more flexible engineering and operations, faster time-to-service, and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.infinera.com .

About SDN Communications

SDN Communications' 21,000-mile fiber optic footprint touches 300 South Dakota communities and reaches into Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and North Dakota. Eighteen of South Dakota's independent telephone companies -- cooperative, municipal, tribal, and family-owned companies -- own SDN. It is the premier business-to-business broadband service provider for:

Connectivity - for multiple-location offices

Internet - dedicated service

Network Surveillance - guarding networks

Networking Equipment - cabling infrastructure, data equipment, and IP telephony

For more information go to: www.sdncommunications.com .

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future such the benefits and capabilities or our products and the Digital Optical Networks architecture, including the benefits of Bandwidth Virtualization, the timing for SDN to offer new services on the Infinera Equipment and Infinera's belief about the timing for customers to provision new services on a traditional DWDM system, and other statements that can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated," "believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our ability to protect our intellectual property, claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property, our manufacturing process is very complex, product performance problems we may encounter, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers, our ability to respond to rapid technological changes, our ability to maintain effective internal controls, the ability of our contract manufacturers to perform as we expect, general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our annual report filed on Form 10K filed with the SEC on February 19, 2008 and our public announcements, reports to stockholders and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.