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Agility Communications Successfully Completes Initial Phase of East Coast Manufacturing Expansion

Source: Agility


Prepares to Deliver High Volume of Widely Tunable Lasers for Agile Optical Networks

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.

Agility s Pennsylvania Facility Ramps Up to Produce 1,000 Lasers Per Week in 2001

Agility Communications(TM), Inc., a pioneer of next-generation optical networking components, today announced that the company has completed the initial phase of their East Coast manufacturing facility expansion in less than five months.

The architecture and packaging design for Agility s Indium Phosphide Laser Diode Modules originated in the company s world-class facilities located at corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif. With this announcement, the packaging technology is being transferred to Agility s 30,000-square feet Allentown, Penn. facility which will be responsible for packaging 100% of the company s laser chips.

To support explosive customer demand, Agility s fully automated, high-volume manufacturing facility will produce more than 1,000 lasers per week by the end of 2001. With the expectation of supplying up to one million lasers per year in 2003, Agility s three-year manufacturing plan is to begin installing the necessary infrastructure to meet that goal. The company anticipates completing phase two of the expansion plan in 2002 to produce 10,000 lasers per week by the end of the year. Agility is also evaluating additional manufacturing facilities worldwide to take the company beyond production of the one million laser capacity.

Developed for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks, Agility s high-power 3040 lasers tune to more than 100 ITU (International Telecommunications Union) channels in fiber optic networks in less than 10 milliseconds. With Agility s 3040 lasers, communications companies can dynamically manage optical networks, providing bandwidth on demand to millions of Internet users while dramatically reducing network complexity and cost. Agility has delivered its 3040 High-Power, Widely Tunable Laser to select customers. General availability will follow in the first quarter of 2001.

Industry analysts from RHK expect the global optical networking industry to top $41 billion by 2003. According to analysts the key to success for companies entering the widely tunable laser market is to develop reliable, high-capacity manufacturing facilities that can deliver product to keep pace with the demand from communications companies.

"When Agility started the initial phase of its East Coast expansion plan in Allentown, we had an empty 30,000-square foot warehouse and four employees," said Mike Reffle, vice president and general manager, Package Manufacturing, Agility and former CEO and president of FiNet Technologies. "In less than five months, we have put the fundamental pieces into place to create one of the world s leading fully automated, high-volume laser packaging facilities. We have aggressively rolled our first product off the line in November and are fully prepared to deliver more than 1,000 lasers per week by the end of this year."

"Agility is recognized in the industry as being one of only a few companies in the world to have the expertise and facilities to manufacture these sophisticated, widely tunable lasers in desirable quantities at reasonable costs," said Ron Nelson, president and CEO of Agility. "Because Agility s high-power, widely tunable lasers have been exceptionally well received in the marketplace, we fully anticipate continuing to scale our manufacturing facilities to produce more than a million high-quality lasers per year to support the explosive growth in this industry."

About Agility Communications, Inc.

Agility Communications, Inc., is pioneering breakthrough optical networking infrastructure solutions that dramatically reduce the costs and complexity of supporting agile networks. Developed for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks, Agility s first products, high-power, widely tunable lasers, will help communications providers to increase network capacity, maximize existing network resources, streamline the planning process for network growth, and dynamically provision bandwidth. Industry analysts from RHK expect the global optical networking industry to top $41 billion by 2003. Light Reading has recently selected Agility as one of the hottest IPO prospects in optical networking, placing it on their Top Ten Privately Held Companies list. Founded by a team of optical networking veterans in Oct. 1998, Agility is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California and has manufacturing facilities in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Agility investors include Amerindo Investment Advisors, Berkeley International Capital Ltd., Comdisco Ventures, Dell Ventures, Hammer Capital Management, Inc., Milton Chang, Meritech Capital Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Mustang Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, and Worldview Technology Partners. For more information about Agility solutions visit, http://www.agility.com, send email to info@agilitycom.com or call 805/690-1700.

Agility Communications and the Agility logo are trademarks of Agility Communications, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company and product names mentioned are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Trainer Public Relations Lisa Blaisdell, 949/347-1040, lisa@trainerpr.com

 

Trainer Public Relations
Lisa Blaisdell, 949/347-1040, lisa@trainerpr.com
 
E-mail: lisa@trainerpr.com
Web site: http://www.agility.com
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