TRLabs and BigBangwidth join forces in optical networking research

April 26, 2001 -- Edmonton, AB - Growth of TRLabs Industry Associates Program explodes with energy from its newest member - BigBangwidth (www.BigBangwidth.com), the exabit netOptical Company.

As an Industry Associate member, BigBangwidth will have priority access to researchers specializing in nanomachining and optics, and to TRLabs facilities for the research, development and testing of the BigBangwidth netOptical Grid.

BigBangwidth is an emerging leader in the nanomachining of all-optical grids for fiber-optic telecommunication networks, including Dark Fiber. Using NEMS (Nano Electrical Mechanical Systems) technology, the company develops products that eliminate bottlenecks within fibre optic networks and generate an increase in bandwidth capacity. The company's flagship product, the BigBangwidth Grid, is used for wide area networks (WAN) and metro area networks (MAN) for telecommunications carriers.

Glenn Rainbird, TRLabs President and CEO, sees exciting possibilities for research collaboration. "BigBangwidth is working in one of the most exciting areas of information and communications technology - optical networking. There is a lot of synergy between BigBangwidth's product development goals and our photonics research program. Success in our efforts holds considerable potential to bring a wealth of economic activity and new jobs to Edmonton."

TRLabs Industry Associates Program gives technology companies with revenues less than $30 million access to TRLabs research, technology, facilities and people at an affordable price. Sponsors benefit from membership in TRLabs in a number of ways. They have priority access to researchers specializing in industry-relevant subject matter, to all TRLabs facilities and equipment and to TRLabs highly sought-after graduates for employment. They can develop technologies that come out of the TRLabs research program for market or use them as tools in their own R&D programs. And TRLabs pre-competitive R&D environment sometimes leads to off-line strategic technology or business alliances among sponsors.

TRLabs is Canada's leading ICT research consortium. Through industry-university-government collaboration, TRLabs creates innovative technologies and trains students to enhance Canada's information and communications technology expertise and improve its global competitiveness. TRLabs operates research labs in five cities: Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg. Its industrial sponsors include telecom carriers, multinational equipment manufacturers, telecommunications service providers and emerging western Canadian ICT businesses. University sponsors are the Universities of Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Regina and Manitoba, and government sponsors are the Governments of Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

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