Bulgarian Telecommunications Company Expands Cisco IP Next Generation Network for Triple-Play Service Growth

SOFIA, BULGARIA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 12, 2007 -- Cisco Systems® (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced today that Bulgarian Telecommunications Company AD (BTC), the largest telecommunications operator in Bulgaria, has built on its Cisco IP Next Generation Network (IP NGN) to enhance service offerings to its enterprise clients and 2.5 million-plus residential phone and Internet customers. The network gives BTC greater capacity and the ability to support advanced services integrating voice, video and data securely, and carries interconnect traffic from nearby countries.

"Working with Cisco to develop our network will help extend our geographical reach and help to accelerate the deployment of new services such as triple play," Martin Staub, CEO of BTC, said. "Our strategy of a single converged infrastructure to support multiple services is well aligned with Cisco's vision," he added.

The new nationwide network backbone is built on Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP Series optical platforms for national dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM). The backbone upgrade, which significantly enhances the existing synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) core with DWDM capabilities and supports traffic rates of 10 gigabits per second, was the first in a number of improvements to BTC's national telecommunications infrastructure following the company's privatization.

BTC uses the optical backbone as the foundation for a nationwide IP-based network and switched from SDH to DWDM because the latter could offer greater traffic capacity over fiber.

"Like many major telecommunications providers in Central and Eastern Europe, BTC is aware that it needs to move quickly to stay ahead of the competition and is carrying out a top-to-bottom review of its infrastructure," commented Kaan Terzioglu, vice president for Central and Eastern Europe for Cisco. "As one of the critical ingredients in the network foundation, BTC has chosen Cisco's ONS 15454 MSTP platform to support the optimum combination of flexibility, capacity and future-proofing."

BTC's Next Generation Transport Network is based on Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platforms. Cisco 7600 series routers provide Gigabit Ethernet aggregation on a Metro level to support triple-play service delivery.

About Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC)

Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) is the main telecommunication services operator in Bulgaria, employing over 12,000 professionals. BTC has 2.5 million fixed-line subscribers and a growing number of mobile customers to its GSM operator, vivatel.

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Contact Information: Press Contact (CEE): Judit Sinko Cisco Systems +36 1 225 4560 jsinko@cisco.com Press Contact (Bulgaria): Teodora Angelova Cisco Systems + 359 2 937 59 19 tangelov@cisco.com Industry Analyst Contact: Michal Halama Cisco Systems +44 (0)20 8824 0511 mhalama@cisco.com Investor Relations Contact: Aimee Fuller Cisco Systems +44 (0)208 824 0874 asfuller@cisco.com