Lantern Communications, Inc. (www.lanterncom.com) announces that it has entered into an agreement with Global Crossing (NYSE: GX). This agreement will facilitate technical collaboration between the two companies, helping Lantern to introduce Gigabit Ethernet technology into Metropolitan Area Networks.

Global Crossing and Lantern will seek to jointly beta test Lantern’s initial Metro Packet Switch product line, which is based on Lantern’s leading Resilient Optical Packet Ring technology. Trials of the switching platform are scheduled to begin in second quarter of 2001. This partnership represents a significant development in the evolution of optical access networks for metropolitan areas.

“Resilient Optical Packet Rings, based on 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology, are the most cost effective way to deliver superband data services in the metro area”, said Nasser Hiekali, CEO of Lantern. “Global Crossing, an industry visionary, has built a global optical network that will be the foundation of a service-rich infrastructure, optimized for Internet-enabled applications. Lantern and Global Crossing have a shared vision, and we are delighted to have this opportunity to partner with Global Crossing to help achieve their objectives.”

“As part of our strategy to expand our leadership position in global markets, Global Crossing systematically evaluates emerging technologies to determine their viability for our network architecture. Lantern’s highly capable management team has developed a leading Resilient Optical Packet Ring switching technology which provides a viable option for the delivery of Gigabit Ethernet services,” said Mike Coghill, Senior Vice President of Global Engineering at Global Crossing.”

Lantern Communications is pioneering the application of the emerging 10 Gbps Ethernet standard in a packet-optimized access architecture referred to as Resilient Packet Ring (RPR). Their work, among others within the IEEE 802 (www.ieee802.org/rprsg), is expected to lead to a standard for this technology.

http://www.lanterncom.com