OFS EXCEEDS INDUSTRY STANDARD IN ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF MULTIMODE FIBER

IWCS, Philadelphia, Booth 405, November 15, 2004 � OFS, designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, today announced a significant improvement in the environmental performance of its 50 mm and 62.5 mm multimode fiber products, with an industry-leading < = 0.1 dB/km for all key environmental specifications.  
 
The new, tighter specifications help ensure the industry�s lowest attenuation under all four standard environmental parameters: extreme temperature cycling, high temperature and humidity cycling, heat aging, and water immersion. The industry standard for these parameters is < = 0.2 dB/km, according to TIA/EIA-492 Detail Specification documents for multimode fibers and IEC 60793-2-10 Product Specifications for multimode fibers.  
 
OFS� tightened specifications can result in more reliable performance and longer product life for its fiber under these demanding environmental conditions, which can be found in many multimode installations.  
 
OFS multimode fibers with the new, improved environmental performance are designed for use not only in premises cables, including the popular tight buffer design for local-area networks (LANs), but also in indoor/outdoor cable designs. These are growing increasingly popular for LAN and short to medium campus backbones, and are most likely to be subjected to adverse environmental conditions.  
 
OFS said the enhanced performance is a result of the company�s Flex-10� multimode fiber coating. Made from a dual-layer, UV-curable acrylate material, Flex-10 coating provides improved cable performance and excellent mechanical stripping, even in extreme temperature environments.  
 
Customized for multimode fiber, Flex-10 coating minimizes the attenuation of fiber cables, particularly for demanding tight buffer designs that can otherwise cause light loss due to microbending. For cable manufacturers, lower attenuation can result in reduced downtime and less scrap. For network designers, lower attenuation can provide additional link loss margin for additional connections, extended length support, and greater reliability.  
 
OFS manufactures graded-index multimode fibers capable of higher bandwidth performance over increasingly long distances. The company�s LaserWave� fiber is the first laser-optimized multimode fiber product designed to support low-cost solutions from 10 Megabits per second (Mb/s) through 10 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) up to at least 500 meters. Cable with OFS multimode fiber is available from leading cable manufacturers.  
 
About OFS  
OFS is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products for a wide variety of applications and industries. OFS, formerly the Optical Fiber Solutions division of Lucent Technologies Inc. [NYSE: LU], has a proven track record of being first in the industry with application specific fibers, optical connectors, ribbon cables, erbium doped fibers, Raman fiber lasers and more. OFS is committed to providing customers increased value by offering products that deliver lowest cost per bit network solutions, protecting investments through future flexible solutions.  
 
OFS distributes its optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products directly to end users, as well as through valued distributors, external cable customers and equipment vendors.  
 
OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications. Headquartered in Norcross, GA, OFS operates facilities in Avon, Connecticut; Carrollton, Georgia; Somerset, New Jersey; and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, as well as facilities in Denmark, Germany and Russia. For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.  
 
Contact:  
 
Steve Cardone  
Marketing Manager, Multimode  
508-347-8557  
ofspr@ofsoptics.com