PEMBROKE TELELEPHONE DEPLOYS AFC'S FIBERDIRECT SOLUTION.

Advanced Fibre Communications, Inc. (AFC) (NASDAQ:AFCI) has announced that Pembroke Telephone Company, an independent operating company (IOC) located in Pembroke, Ga., has successfully deployed AFC's FiberDirect solution, a service provider's most direct path to deploying Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP). With a single AccessMAX(TM) shelf, AFC's FiberDirect can provide carriers with a comprehensive suite of narrowband and broadband architectures and services.

By the simple addition of AFC's FSAN-compliant passive optical networking (PON) plug-in card, Pembroke was able to quickly upgrade its existing AccessMAX platforms to optical line terminals (OLTs) with integrated voice gateways.

"AFC's FiberDirect solution fits seamlessly into our existing network, minimizing new procurement, training and operations costs," said James Reeves, operations manager at Pembroke. "We are continuing to expand our fiber-fed network to serve more than 4,000 customer lines throughout the northern half of Bryan County. Once AFC's PON cards were installed and the AccessMAX optical network terminals placed at various customer locations, the system was ready to go, giving us the ability to offer voice, video and high-speed Internet services."

According to Reeves, Pembroke wanted to leverage their existing network infrastructure in delivering the triple play to its subscribers. By installing AFC's FiberDirect solution, Pembroke succeeded in utilizing their existing equipment. The move saved the IOC thousands of dollars in inventory and streamlined the qualification process for deployment.

"With a growing national trend among carriers to embrace Fiber-to-the-Premises as the next logical step in the evolution of the access network, our customers place great value on AFC's ability to deliver flexible, evolutionary systems that enable them to minimize initial capital investment and leverage their existing infrastructure and operations processes," commented John Schofield, chairman, president and CEO at AFC.

AFC believes that FiberDirect is the only FTTP solution on the market today with an integrated voice gateway to any Class 5 switch interface, including GR-303, TR-08 and TR-57. When needed, any of these interfaces can be supported simultaneously from FiberDirect to any Class 5 switch. Consistent with AFC's history of providing carriers with low start-up and lifecycle costs when deploying next-generation networks, FiberDirect is ready to migrate carriers to packet voice architectures that include H.248 and session initiation protocol (SIP) interfaces.

At the subscriber premises, AFC's versatile suite of optical node terminals (ONTs) is designed to support single-family homes, multi-dwelling units, multi-tenant units or small to medium-size businesses. AFC's family of ONTs can provide a broad range of service interfaces, ranging from POTS and T1 to Coax Video and Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps).

As the migration to FTTP networks calls for the simultaneous delivery of video services -- over copper or fiber -- AFC's FiberDirect and TelcoVideo(SM) solutions offer flexible video deployment options such as broadcast RF overlay and IP Video. Pembroke is also deploying video over DSL using AFC's TelcoVideo solution, according to Reeves.

"Initially, we plan to extend video services to 50 percent of our customers," commented Reeves. "By the end of 2004, our goal is to offer video services to 100 percent of our customers."

About AFC

Headquartered in Petaluma, Calif., Advanced Fibre Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of broadband access solutions for the global telecommunications industry. With a customer base of more than 800 service providers worldwide, AFC continues to build and support the world's evolving broadband access network architecture.

For more information, visit http://www.afc.com or call 800/690-AFCI or 707/792-401.

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