SONAbeam™ 622 Series Ready to Serve the Growing Need for Low-Cost, High-Speed Connectivity with a True Carrier-Class Design

Vancouver, Canada - January 29, 2002 - In Washington D.C. today, fSONA Communications announced to COMNET attendees, the commercial release of its latest optical wireless systems - the SONAbeam™ 622-S and the SONAbeam™ 622-M. Both products serve the growing need for low-cost, high-capacity connectivity that can be deployed quickly and economically.

The SONAbeam™ 622-S is optimized for high-availability links under 1.4 miles. Cost-effective and compact, the SONAbeam™ 622-S provides an attractive solution for enterprise applications. Despite it's elegant exterior and the ability to operate indoors, this rugged, versatile system is designed for high-reliability and long product life providing a true, carrier-class system fully qualified for operation in any type of weather and able to withstand the rigors of industrial applications.

The SONAbeam™ 622-M is engineered for longer links - up to 2 miles - that offer the best availability in the business. Designed with carriers' needs in mind, the SONAbeam™ 622-M contains four redundant laser transmitters and an environmentally-sealed cast aluminum housing, making it the most rugged, powerful FSO system currently available.

The SONAbeam™ 622 series of products easily integrate with current networks and are superior stepping-stones to next-generation networks. The SONAbeam™ series' 1550nm operating wavelength and unique transceiver design provides up to 50 times the power of competing products. Higher power translates into greater link ranges and availability - up to 99.999% availability at practical link ranges in all weather conditions.

According to a September 2001 report issued by The Strategis Group, market share for FSO equipment revenues show significant growth in higher bandwidths over the next five years. In 2001, market share of FSO equipment revenues for bandwidths greater than OC-3 (155 Mbps) is 28 percent, by 2006 that market share is expected to grow to 56 percent.

By transmitting through the atmosphere, SONAbeam™ dispenses with the substantial costs of digging up sidewalks to install a fiber link. Unlike RF wireless technologies, SONAbeam™ also eliminates the need to obtain costly spectrum licenses to meet complex regulatory requirements. SONAbeam's™ FSO technology is impervious to and does not generate RF and EM interference. Thus SONAbeam™ is ideally suited for use in EMI sensitive areas such as hospitals, airports, oil services and construction sites.

Together with the rest of the SONAbeam™ product family, the new SONAbeam™ 622 series products are ready today to provide the optical connectivity needed for today's bandwidth intensive applications.

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.