CHELMSFORD, Mass. -- Astral Point Communications, Inc., a leadingprovider of metropolitan optical networking solutions, announced today thatit has earned certification of its management operating system from TÜVManagement Service (www.tuvglobal.com) to ISO 9001:2000 quality standards.

With today's announcement, Astral Point becomes the first of the 70+ telecomequipment vendors in Massachusetts certified to the new standard. The ISO9001:2000 standard is a more comprehensive standard than 1994's ISO 9000which focused on quality procedures within the manufacturing organization.The new standard incorporates eight quality management principles across theentire company: customer-focused organization, leadership, involvement ofpeople, process approach, systems approach to management, continualimprovement, factual approach to decision making and mutually beneficialsupplier relationships.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment for Astral Point. Receiving ISO9001:2000 certification confirms that we have successfully implementedsustainable and scalable processes throughout our entire businessinfrastructure," said Bill Doherty, vice president of operations at AstralPoint.

Astral Point Communications Inc.