CIENA SELECTED BY TELÉFONOS DE MÉXICO (TELMEX) AS A STRATEGIC VENDOR FOR NEXT-GENERATION NETWORK

Awards Contract to CIENA for LightWorks Architecture Deployment

Linthicum, MD — 07/09/2002 Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), a leading provider of intelligent optical networking systems and software, today announced that it has been selected by Teléfonos de México (TELMEX) (NYSE: TMX), as the supplier of intelligent optical networking solutions for its next-generation network. TELMEX, Mexico’s largest telecommunications service provider, will use Ciena’s solution in its network operations.

The two companies have signed an agreement that encompasses Ciena’s LightWorks suite of products. Ciena already has begun shipping products and deployment is underway in TELMEX’s more than 70,000-kilometer fiber optic digital network. Initially, TELMEX is deploying Ciena’s optical switching products to build Latin America’s premier next-generation network to accommodate continued growth in data service traffic.

“The selection of Ciena as a key strategic next-generation networking vendor is the result of an exhaustive process designed to determine which solution could help us continue to provide innovative services and programs to our customers,” said Eduardo Gómez Chibli, director of technical and long distance for TELMEX.

“Ciena’s LightWorks architecture was the clear winner. The benefits derived from products that have distributed intelligence were the key factors in the decision to develop this relationship with Ciena,” concluded Chibli.

TELMEX is widely considered one of the world’s strongest carriers, having recently been ranked at the top of Forbes.com’s list of “The World’s Best Telecom Companies.” In that feature, TELMEX was chosen as the “Spotlight” company for its ability to adapt its technology to the market it serves. It is TELMEX’s ability to provide a wide range of services and programs for Mexico’s business and residential markets that has distinguished the carrier from its peers around the globe.

“One of Ciena’s ongoing corporate objectives is to continue building our base of top-tier carrier customers around the world. Given TELMEX’s reputation for the highest performance standards, we are excited about our relationship with this dynamic and innovative service provider,” said Arely Castellón, vice president and general manager, Latin America for Ciena. “TELMEX is known for its ability to identify the needs of the markets it serves and create products accordingly, so we are looking forward to working with TELMEX as a key strategic vendor and to building a next-generation network that creates value for TELMEX and its customers.”

In addition to the service-enabling characteristics of LightWorks, the Ciena architecture is expected to help TELMEX identify potential failures before they happen, reduce the amount of steps required to set up circuits and simulate network growth for future expansion planning