Hitachi EPON Equipment Used in Growth of Mobile Backhaul and Business Services

EPON Networks are the Foundation for New Network Builds for Mobile Service
Providers
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc. (HCTA), the only vendor
offering a comprehensive line of EPON, GPON, DePON, MW-PON, and RFoG equipment
today announced that its EPON solutions are supporting the growth of mobile
backhaul and business services. Recent successes in delivering service for
mobile backhaul are driving the use of EPON in service provider networks. The
industry is increasing the use of fiber technologies to access cell towers and
business customers. PON technologies were created to make efficient use of fiber
and recent deployments of Hitachi`s EPON for mobile backhaul have proven their
value in cellular networks. This trend will continue along with the need for
bandwidth and cell tower density.

"Our experience demonstrates that using EPON for fiber access to cell towers
will deliver the quality, bandwidth, and redundancy required for this rapidly
growing application," said Jeffrey Stribling, VP of PLM and Customer Service for
HCTA. He added, "Over the past two years our EPON solutions have supported the
growth of wireless offerings for service providers in key U.S. markets."

According to recent data provided to the Metro Ethernet Forum by Infonetics
Research, Inc., the business case for Ethernet in Mobile Backhaul applications
is strong. A combination of 1) increasing bandwidth needs, 2) strong mobile
subscriber growth, 3) cost advantages over PDH connectivity, and 4) the
availability of Ethernet interfaces on new base stations, makes EPON a serious
contender for mobile backhaul applications.

The Hitachi EPON solution leverages the benefits of mobile backhaul and business
services on the same EPON network. Both applications require similar features.
Hitachi`s EPON equipment supports ITU-T Y.1731 service management, which focuses
on end-to-end service performance. Critical features for voice traffic support
provided by Y.1731 include frame delay, delay variation and frame loss
measurements as well as monitoring and test capabilities for SLA verification.
New features in the Hitachi EPON system enable up to 40% latency reduction
compared to standard EPON. This capability was developed to support voice
applications. The Hitachi EPON equipment is also MEF 9 and MEF 14 certified to
insure network performance and interoperability among heterogeneous equipment.

Voice quality is another area where Hitachi EPON has proven successful. 3G and
4G mobile networks have significant buffering capabilities designed into the
wireless equipment. However, 2.5G systems, by far the most numerous today, have
no buffering and can tolerate approximately 8ms of one-way delay. Of this budget
approximately .5ms is introduced by the EPON equipment. An additional 1.5ms is
used for TDM-to-Ethernet conversion, leaving 6ms for the rest of the IP network.
This EPON performance has proven to be just as reliable as T-1 PDH networks in
transporting high quality voice traffic.

Resilience is another innovation in the Hitachi system. Path redundancy can be
achieved using diversely routed fiber. When there are two fiber paths to the
cell tower Hitachi`s solution can provide "hitless" redundancy. Using Hitachi
EPON in this configuration, with Circuit Emulation Services, there is no data
loss or delay when switching from the primary to the secondary path. This
feature is important in supporting strict SLAs.

"We know that Ethernet access is replacing T-1 access for SMB and Enterprise
customers and believe that this situation will be replicated as Ethernet becomes
common for mobile backhaul connectivity." Stribling continued, "Our EPON systems
have the advanced software features that enable mobile backhaul and other new
Ethernet applications."

Hitachi will be showing EPON and GPON platforms that support mobile backhaul and
business services in booth #11123 at this year`s Cable-Tec exhibition sponsored
by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers in Denver, Colorado, Oct
28th-30th.

ABOUT HITACHI

Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd.,
develops, manufactures and markets equipment for communications service
providers in the Americas.

The company offers ultra high-speed optical networking equipment for long haul
and metro applications, standards-compliant fiber-to-the-premises solutions,
including EPON, GPON and RFoG systems, end-subscriber products such as home
gateways/routers with open application platform support, and products and
technologies for wireless network operators, including RAN/RF amplifier products
and packet core solutions. For more information about Hitachi Communication
Technologies America, please visit http://www.hitachi-cta.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a
leading global electronics company with approximately 400,000 employees
worldwide. Fiscal 2008 (ended March 31, 2009) consolidated revenues totaled
10,000 billion yen ($102.0 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems,
products and services in market sectors including information systems,
electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials,
logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit
the company`s website at http://www.hitachi.com.

Hitachi Communication Technologies America, Inc.
Mannix O`Connor, 408-845-5336 or 408-858-2451 (mobile)
mannix@hitachi-cta.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009