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HERMES EUROPE RAILTEL EXTENDS CONTRACT WITH CIENA

Ciena Corporation (Nasdaq: CIEN) today announced that Hermes Europe Railtel (HER) has extended its existing relationship with Ciena as the supplier of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical networking products for GTS Carrier Services' (GTSG: Nasdaq and Easdaq) pan-European network build through April, 2000.

"Ciena's open systems approach to optical networking through DWDM is key to our ability to provision high-bandwidth services across our network and will be a critical element of our new IP service offering," said Jan Loeber, president, GTS Carrier Services and managing director, HER. "Partnering with a technology leader like Ciena will enable HER to handle the dynamic bandwidth and service demands of our carrier customers and the rapid Internet and data growth anticipated throughout Europe."

In a separate announcement last week, HER announced its intention to deploy Europe's first operational high capacity fiber optic Internet network carrying IP traffic directly over DWDM transport. The network, supported by Ciena's MultiWave Sentry 4000 and Cisco System's International routers, will potentially provide an increase in capacity of more than 10 times that of current operational IP networks and is expected to deliver dramatically lower operating costs.

This IP-over-DWDM platform will be deployed initially in six European countries. HER expects a controlled introduction to commence with selected customers in March. General service availability is expected for later this year.

"Aggressive, alternative carriers like Hermes Europe Railtel are driving true competition in the European Telcomm market," said Patrick Nettles, Ciena's president and chief executive officer. "By embracing the revolutionary vision of an IP-to-the-glass network, HER unlocks the bandwidth elasticity, service versatility and network scalability of optical networking -- all of which become critical differentiators to a competitive carrier. We're very pleased that HER has chosen to extend its existing relationship with Ciena."