Narad Networks Unveils New 100 Megabit Solution for Cable


Company to Debut New Ethernet Products That Enable Cable MSOs to Deliver More Bandwidth Than Verizon's FiOS or AT&T's Lightspeed at Much Lower Cost

WESTFORD, Mass., June 19 / -- Narad Networks, Inc., a provider of high performance, Ethernet switches for broadband access solutions, today unveiled a new modular switch product line capable of delivering true, dedicated, 100 Megabits per second service simultaneously to each and every home on a cable operator's network -- several times faster than competing services such as Verizon's FiOS or AT&T's Lightspeed.

The new product line's debut leverages nearly five years of silicon, software and hardware development and a long series of trials with cable operators focusing on expanding the data capacity of the existing HFC plant. The new modular Ethernet switch can be deployed in a variety of configurations for various commercial and residential applications. For high capacity residential broadband, the switch can be deployed in a fiber to the curb architecture. With electronics costs loosely the equivalent of Passive Optical Network (PON), but with far less fiber construction cost, MSOs can now deliver greater capacity than PON -- at much lower cost.

"In contested markets, cable operators now have a new HFC cable solution with superior performance and economics than their competitors," said Michael Collette, chief executive officer of Narad Networks. "With this new platform, cable operators can future-proof their network to support more advanced services by delivering higher capacity at lower costs and in less time than anything offered by Verizon or AT&T."

The new modular switch expands Narad's historical architectural focus on Fiber to the node (FTTN) to a more flexible approach with integrated solutions for Fiber to the Premise (FTTP), Fiber to the Curb (FTTC) and FTTN. In the FTTC architecture, operators can extend their existing HFC fiber to approximately curb depth, which means that new fiber will be run down streets along coaxial cable trunks and feeder legs that run past residential and commercial locations. Importantly, new fiber does not need to be run from the curb or pole to the home. Narad technology allows operators to preserve the very large investment that they have made in the coaxial cable drops on their network. Resulting fiber construction costs will vary by region and geography, but the average cost will be approximately $50 per home passed for construction of fiber to the curb.

Narad switches are placed at existing coax cable tap locations along what is now HFC trunk. Ethernet from fiber and existing video, voice, data from coax are fed into the Narad modular tap switch. Narad modems inside the switch convert fiber-fed Ethernet into a modulated carrier at frequencies above existing cable services. The Narad switch then delivers the combined signal to the home. Inside the home, a Narad modem presents 100 Mbps, symmetric Ethernet to the home router or PC while existing CATV services flow into and out of the home along their normal routes.

"The cable industry is evaluating alternative, next-generation architectures to address consumers' future needs for expanded data and high-definition video and high-performance services for business customers," said Sterling Perrin, Senior Analyst with Heavy Reading. "With the powerful combination of Ethernet and optical fiber, the cable industry will have the capacity to compete against emerging telco services and satisfy the bandwidth needs of both consumers and businesses far into the future."

"Ethernet has been proliferating and evolving for 33 years, and each time we speed Ethernet up and/or further extend it, we get growth for everybody in productivity, demand, revenue and profits," said Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and Narad board member. "With this latest Narad switch, cable operators can rapidly penetrate business markets with killer cost and performance advantages over legacy copper and even the new passive optical networks from telephone companies. Switching and not passive is the path to the future in expanding capacity. This massive expansion of capacity can translate into a new golden era of growth for the cable industry, both in business and premium residential markets."

Narad Networks holds numerous granted and pending patents that are applicable to the FTTC architecture.

About Narad Networks

Narad Networks is a provider of switched broadband access solutions that enable cable operators to leverage existing coaxial cable and flexibly use fiber and wireless media to deliver high capacity, high performance IP services, including voice, data, video, and enterprise networks. The company's QoS switches and service management software, along with its broad spectrum fiber and coax transmission technologies, support multi-gigabit transport for both commercial and residential customers. Narad's patented Ethernet-over-Coax solution meets the needs of coax-based users that have voice or data needs beyond that which cable modems can offer, while Narad's switched Ethernet-over-Fiber solution provides unprecedented IP capacity to fiber-based customers. Narad is currently deployed with North American and European cable operators.

Based in Westford, Massachusetts, Narad is a privately held company with venture funding from Argo Global Capital, Polaris Venture Partners and other leading venture capital firms. For more information, visit www.naradnetworks.com.

Source: Narad Networks, Inc.

CONTACT: Helen Chung of JLM Partners, +1-206-381-3600, or helen@jlmpartners.com, for Narad Networks

Web site: www.naradnetworks.com/

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