U.S. Company Re-Locates R&D to Alberta and Joins TRLabs

November 10, 2005 -- November 10, 2005 - Calgary, AB - Optimum Communications Services, Inc., a company with its origins in California, has moved its headquarters and R&D function to Calgary to work with TRLabs on accelerating development of the company's Intelligent Transport Network™ (ITN) technology.

The move comes following a TRLabs meeting with the company in San Francisco in March 2005, and a subsequent company visit to TRLabs in April to view the organization's unique infrastructure. Initial meetings were generated by Alberta Innovation and Science during an annual trade mission to California.

"Our interest in TRLabs stems from the presence of the high speed test network TRnet," says Optimum's President and CEO Mark Sandstrom. "TRnet is a unique experimental network worldwide in that it allows us to test ITN in actual commercial deployment-like applications. Equally as important, TRLabs has expertise that we will be tapping to get our technology and test results third-party validated."

"Optimum's move to Alberta is testament to the network development tool capabilities of TRnet and our continuing shift of our activities to help companies get technological innovations to market faster," says TRLabs President and CEO Dr. Roger Pederson. "We have globally significant R&D capabilities in western Canada that we have to continue to build on to ensure future competitiveness in information and communications technology - a key enabler of all economic sectors in Canada."

Optimum is presently working with TRLabs on co-developing and testing of Optimum's ITN nodes and network and service management software under terms of a contract with TRTech, a subsidiary of TRLabs dedicated to technology development for commercial applications. Twenty-five TRTech projects have been completed in the last four years.

TRnet is a 3000 km, $10.6 million independent wide-area networking laboratory linking TRLabs facilities in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina Saskatoon, and Winnipeg made operational in 2005. At 10 Gigabits per second, TRnet is one of the fastest networks in Canada - 10,000 times faster than typical data rates on today's high-speed Internet connection to the home. TRnet is a window to the future - a future with exponentially faster networks and a new paradigm of networking, content and applications.

Optimum Communications Services, Inc. has joined the TRLabs Industry Associate network of 31 start-up and growth phase high-tech companies across western Canada. Optimum is a wholesale network service provider using its patent-pending ITN service delivery platform to provide cost-efficient multi-protocol backbone network and broadband VPN solutions for end-user-serving communications providers, on-line service providers and information-intensive enterprises. Due to the novel control-plane of ITN that enables real-time traffic-pattern-adaptive optimization of network resource allocation, ITN provides the performance and security of a private network with the cost-efficiency of shared Internet infrastructure.

About TRLabs

TRLabs creates innovative technologies and trains students to enhance ICT expertise and improve Canada's global competitiveness. Labs in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg employ 250. With 55 partner members representing a unique synergy of industry, government, and university, research focuses on future network needs and demands: data networking, digital media, health, home technologies, network systems, photonics, and wireless communications. In its 19-year existence, TRLabs has trained 810 highly skilled university graduates, created 290 technologies adopted for use by companies, and generated 157 patents issued or filed.

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