Vancouver, Canada - April 15, 2002 - CMP Media's Network Magazine today announced the SONAbeam™ as winner of its 15th annual Product of the Year Award in the Wireless Wide Area Network (WAN) device category.

"It is with great honor that we accept 'Product of the Year' from Network magazine. This award recognizes the quality of SONAbeam™ products which are the most robust, rugged and reliable FSO (Free Space Optical) in the industry," said Theresa Carbonneau, President and CEO, fSONA Communcations. "The development of an award-winning product was the result of bringing together one of the industry's most experienced teams of laser communications professionals from around the world."

The winners were selected "through an extensive research and review process," said Editor-in-Chief, Network Magazine, Steve Steinke. They are "the most innovative and significant hardware, software and service offerings to hit the market in 2001." Criteria used to judge Product of the Year Award winners include the broad appeal of the product or service to the reader community; competitive enhancements; price/performance advantages; technical ingenuity; new features and applications; and serviceability to the market.

SONAbeam™'s FSO technology uses invisible light beams to deliver high-speed wireless communications. By transmitting through the atmosphere, SONAbeam™ dispenses with the substantial costs of digging up sidewalks to install a fiber link. SONAbeam™ also eliminates the need to obtain costly RF spectrum licenses and it is immune to electro-magnetic (EM), RF interference and interception.

The editors note that SONAbeam™ systems use an operating wavelength of 1550nm. fSONA selected this wavelength because it is inherently eye-safe and therefore has more allowable output power - SONAbeam™ systems have up to 50 times the output power of competing systems. Higher power translates to greater link range or better weather availability. As well, fSONA systems are poised to adopt optical technologies already developed for fiber-optic networks.

A SONAbeam™ can be installed indoors or outdoors to provide LAN bridging, 'last mile' Internet access, PCS/cellular/mobile networks backhaul, redundancy for cable or telecom networks, private line replacement for metro area networks, disaster recovery or temporary connectivity for special events. SONAbeam™'s fully redundant lasers and laser-subsystems are protected from the elements by a environmentally-sealed, cast-aluminum housing that is unique in the industry.

The Product of the Year Award winners will be featured in the May 2002 issue of Network Magazine. An awards ceremony for this year's winners will be held at Wednesday, May 8th during Networld + Interop Spring 2002 in Las Vegas.

[Photos of the SONAbeam™ available upon request]
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About fSONA
fSONA Systems is recognized as the preferred provider of optical wireless solutions for government, enterprise and service provider markets around the globe. Leveraging leading edge advancements in 1550nm optical transmission, the SONAbeam™ family of systems, based on free-space-optics (FSO), use a globally unlicensed, wireless technology to provide speeds up to 2.5 Gbps over distances up to 7km. For more information visit www.fsona.com or www.free-space-optics.org

Further Information
For more information about fSONA, SONAbeam or Free-Space Optical Wireless, please contact:

604-273-6333
media@fsona.com

fSONA and SONAbeam® are trademarks of fSONA Networks. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.