Polaris Networks recognized for its “Hot Technology” by Telecommunications Magazine

Helping service providers maximize existing investments while enabling new generation services, positions Company’s technology to make strong impact in the telecom industry

SAN JOSE, Calif. – May 26, 2003 — Polaris Networks, a developer of new generation optical transport switching systems for the metro core, has been recognized by TelecommunicationsTM Magazine as a provider of one of the top 10 hottest technologies. With this year’s focus on technologies that help service providers maximize their existing network investments while enabling new services, Polaris’ Next Generation Data over SONET solution was recognized among the 10 technology categories considered to be the most important in the industry.

"The days when service providers were deploying the latest and greatest simply because it was the latest and greatest are gone. Technology selection has now become much more selective and aimed at maximum return on investment. Next Generation Data over SONET is an important technology that allows the service provider’s large embedded SONET infrastructure to be gracefully evolved to handle new data services. Polaris was recognized in this category because it is one of the few companies offering this new generation capability," said Sue O'Keefe, editor-in-chief, Telecommunications Magazine.

"We are thrilled to be recognized as a hot technology company” said Christopher V. Cook, SVP of Sales and Marketing of Polaris Networks. "With service providers facing increasing pressure to reduce network costs and increase service profitability from their existing networks, our solution is tailored to help them address this need for pragmatism while migrating their networks to a new-generation architecture that unlocks new data services. This compelling business proposition has received strong interest from many of the largest service providers at a time when many new network technology trials are being abandoned."

“Ethernet over SONET is a new service being pursued by many service providers. New generation capabilities such as VT1.5 Virtual concatenation (Vcat), VT1.5 grooming, and Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) will allow service providers to establish highly efficient data over SONET networks”, said Rick Thompson, Principal, PointEast Research.

To learn more about Polaris Networks Data over SONET technology, the company will have a Kiosk at Telecommunications Magazine’s Hot Technologies Pavilion at SuperComm 2003 (Atlanta, June 3-5) located in Hall C.

About Polaris

Polaris Networks develops new generation optical transport switching systems for metro core networks. From day one, its systems combine optical transport with extensive grooming and switching, managed via a GMPLS-based common control plane. Polaris' architecture is designed for native support of TDM, cell and packet traffic using a single, software-defined switching fabric. This enables service providers to cost-effectively simplify their infrastructures, flexibly scale, and provides a smooth migration to a full multiservice intelligent architecture.

Polaris was founded in June 2000 and is staffed by teams from Alcatel, Cisco, Fujitsu, Nortel, Siemens, Tellabs, AT&T and WorldCom. The company is funded by Redpoint Ventures, Venrock Associates, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), SToRM Ventures and strategic private investors. For more information about Polaris Networks, please visit www.polarisnetworks.com or call 408-281-7466.