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["Michelle Pollak" <>]

NLR ANNOUNCES LIGHTING FIRST PATH OF NATIONAL FOOTPRINT - CHICAGO TO
PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Connects to Extensible Terascale Facility

PHOENIX, AZ - November 18, 2003 - National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a
consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector
technology companies, today announced that it successfully lit the initial
segment on its national footprint between Chicago and Pittsburgh -
connecting the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) to the Extensible
Terascale Facility (ETF), the backplane network for the National Science
Foundation's Teragrid project, through the StarLight Facility in Chicago.

The deployment began early September 2003 with Cisco Systems, Inc.
installing dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) extended long-haul
platforms every 100 kilometers on intercity dark fiber NLR purchased from
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:LVLT).  On November 14, meeting the
target completion date, Cisco turned over seven 10 Gbps wavelengths
('lambdas') to NLR along the 674 fiber miles between the two cities.

"The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center chose the NLR infrastructure over
leased fiber because of the flexibility allowed and the ability to use it as
soon as possible," said Gwendolyn Huntoon, assistant director of the
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.  "Additionally, we were thrilled with the
role that Cisco Systems played during the build-out process.  The level of
support and cooperation shown by them was outstanding."

Tom West, CEO of National LambdaRail, Inc. said, "We are pleased that the
first segment on the NLR infrastructure has been lit.  It was very important
to meet the time requirements of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and
the NLR schedule.  The smoothness of this initial implementation
demonstrated the cooperation among the professionals at Cisco, Level 3,
StarLight, and the members of NLR.  It gives us the confidence that the
remaining paths will be lit as easily as this one."

NLR is currently working on the Seattle to Portland, Ore. path, scheduled
for completion by mid-January 2004 and Portland to Sunnyvale, Calif.,
scheduled to be ready by mid-April 2004.  Other segments on the national
footprint include Pittsburgh to Washington D.C., mid-March 2004; Washington
D.C. to Atlanta, mid-April 2004; Denver to Seattle, early June 2004; Atlanta
to Jacksonville, mid- July2004; and Chicago to Denver, mid-July 2004.
Implementation of Atlanta to Dallas; Dallas to San Diego; and, Washington
D.C. to New York City are scheduled for July to December 2004.

Cisco Systems' participation in this unique effort is both as the key
provider of equipment and as a major proponent of the NLR objectives to
advance research in networking and all fields of science.  Cisco
technologies including optical DWDM multiplexers, Ethernet switches and IP
routers are being deployed; as well as installation, testing, and product
maintenance services. 

Level 3 is the preferred provider of the dark fiber and collocation
facilities on the NLR core backbone infrastructure.

# # #

About National LambdaRail
National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR) is a major initiative of U.S. research
universities and private sector technology companies to provide a national
scale infrastructure for research and experimentation in networking
technologies and applications.  NLR puts the control, the power and the
promise of experimental network infrastructure in the hands of our nation's
scientists and researchers.  Visit http://www.nationallambdarail.org for
more information.

About The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon
University and the University of Pittsburgh together with the Westinghouse
Electric Company.  It was established in 1986 and is supported by several
federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private industry.
Visit http://www.psc.edu/ for more information.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           
Contact:
Michelle Pollak
National LambdaRail, Inc.
(202) 331-5345


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