Telco Systems' EdgeGate CPE 282 VoIP Media Gateway for Consumers Gets Nod from USDA's Rural Utilities Service for Fiber-To-The-Home Use in Rural Broadband Infrastructure Programs.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FOXBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2004

System Enables Internet Phone Service, Video-On-Demand, High-Speed Internet Access

Telco Systems, a BATM company, announced today that its EdgeGate CPE 282 IP media gateway -- which provides broadband Internet access, Internet phone service (VoIP), broadcast video and video-on-demand to the consumer's home over fiber -- was accepted for use in Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) projects funded by the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) following review by the RUS Technical Committee for telecommunications products.

With the RUS technical review and official acceptance, the Telco Systems EdgeGate CPE 282 IP (Internet Protocol) gateway can be used by rural communities that are deploying community broadband networks utilizing RUS loans and grants. Late last year, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced that $11.3 million in broadband community grants were awarded to 34 communities in 20 states.

The grants were made following a national competition to applicants proposing to provide broadband transmission service on a "community-oriented connectivity" basis. The grants are for rural, economically-challenged communities and offers a means for the deployment of broadband transmission services to rural schools, libraries, education centers, health care providers, law enforcement agencies, public safety organizations as well as residents and businesses. The grant program supplements USDA Rural Development's standard high-speed telecommunications loan program.

Telco Systems integrated IP media gateway, the EdgeGate CPE 282, is currently being used in the nation's largest Ethernet based FTTH deployment in the Grant County public utility district in Washington state. Telco Systems' Edgegate CPE is also being used in FTTH networks serving the Washington state counties of Whatcom, Douglass and Clallam.

The Telco Systems IP media gateway enables service providers to offer FTTH or FTTB (Fiber-To-The-Business) for converged VoIP Internet voice service, video, data and broadband Internet access over a single fiber pair to the end user at their home or office. The EdgeGate CPE IP gateway is an Ethernet-based switch with 2 voice ports and up to 8 high-speed Ethernet ports for video, data and broadband Internet access.

The EdgeGate CPE gateway provides the optical-to-electrical conversion that makes FTTH possible and enables end-users to connect standard phones, faxes, PCs, video monitors and televisions to an optical fiber IP Ethernet network.

The EdgeGate CPE 282 is the only IP gateway platform that supports a wide variety of optical fiber uplinks that enable it to be configured with either a Fast or Gigabit Ethernet transceiver. It can be deployed indoors (residence or business) or outdoors in an environmentally controlled and secure cabinet, and supports Automated Meter Reading (AMR) and is equipped to support battery backup to provide lifeline telephony. It supports all current VoIP signaling protocols including SIP, MGCP and H.323. Other protocols are optional and can be enabled.

The EdgeGate CPE IP gateway is part of Telco Systems' FTTH and FTTB end-to-end solution, which includes the company's family of carrier-class IP aggregation and core routing switching platforms. The Telco System FTTH/FTTB end-to-end solution enables a service provider to connect end-users over fiber from their home or office throughout a community, metro area, campus environment, multi-dwelling unit or multi-tenant unit to an IP backbone.

About Telco Systems

Based in Foxboro, Massachusetts, Telco Systems provides industry-leading networking solutions to the carrier, service provider and enterprise markets. Telco Systems' focus is to maximize the power of their customers' networks by integrating transport, access, and packet technologies onto industry-leading platforms that meet today and tomorrow's network demands.

Telco Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of BATM Advanced Communications. BATM (London stock exchange ticker symbol: BVC) is a worldwide leader in designing and supplying carrier-class IP packet-based systems, such as high-capacity, self-routing switches with extensive QoS (Quality of Service). For more information, please visit Telco Systems' web site at http://www.telco.com.