Investors show increasing interest in free space laser communications

RICHMOND, British Columbia - July 23, 2001 - fSONA Communications, A beam of light has emerged through the dark clouds surrounding the telecom industry as companies providing free space connectivity to the glut of long-haul fiber are attracting increasing interest from big-name investors like British Telecom (BT), Cisco, Corning and Nortel.

On 26 June 2001, BT's advanced research and technology business, announced that it had exercised its option to acquire an equity stake in fSONA Communications Corporation, a manufacturer of free space optical wireless systems located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

Free space optical wireless systems enable connectivity between buildings using beams of light to carry high-speed data, Internet or voice traffic. These systems can be used as an economical alternative to hard-wired methods.

"We are very pleased to have BTexact Technologies become an equity partner in fSONA," said Theresa Carbonneau, CEO and president of fSONA. "It has been involved from the very beginning, from raw technology to what is now a formidable, state-of-the-art bandwidth connectivity tool. BTexact's decision to exercise its equity option in fSONA speaks volumes not only about the potential of the free space optics industry in general, but of fSONA in particular."

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.