CABLE & WIRELESS OPTUS AND LUCENT TO BUILD NATIONAL DSL NETWORK

Sydney, Australia - Cable & Wireless Optus today announced a strategic alliance between its wholly owned subsidiary XYZed and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) to build a national digital subscriber line (DSL) network to deliver broadband access to business customers.

Lucent will build, manage, and maintain the initial XYZed network including the provisioning of equipment in Telstra exchanges and customer premises, as well as performance monitoring, and field maintenance. XYZed will use the AnyMedia® Access System, Lucent?s integrated narrowband and broadband access platform, to provide broadband services in key metropolitan areas.

"The unbundling of Telstra's local loop is a great opportunity for Cable & Wireless Optus to break the access bottleneck for business customers. We will build a new high speed broadband access network to deliver a range of business products," said Stephen Beynon, Managing Director, Data & Business Services, Cable & Wireless Optus.

"Lucent is a proven partner in the delivery of DSL technology having built DSL networks in countries around the world, including Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India and the United States. We are pleased to be able to leverage this experience to rollout our own high quality, high speed network," said Mr Beynon.

Phil Pryke, Managing Director, Lucent Technologies Australia and New Zealand said, "The unbundling of the local loop provides both fantastic opportunity for service providers and greater choice and flexibility for consumers. The alliance with XYZed marks a major milestone for Lucent and is a clear indication of the inroads we're making into the fast-growing, local DSL market."

The AnyMedia Access System will provide XYZed the flexibility to offer ADSL (asymmetric DSL), SDSL (symmetric DSL), HDSL (high bit-rate DSL), and SHDSL (single pair high bit-rate DSL) services to customers. Because the system uses 'plug-and-play' application packs, the mix of services can be changed at any time by adding or removing application packs to match customer demand.

XYZed's high speed access service targets highend business customers and will be marketed through wholesale agreements with Cable & Wireless Optus, other carriers and businesses from September this year.

Note to editors:

About XYZed:
XYZed is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cable & Wireless Optus, operating independently to offer a high quality, cost-effective wholesale DSL services to telecommunications carriers and other businesses. The company intends to provide DSL at more than 120 telephone exchanges nationwide, placing its services within reach of more than 75 per cent of businesses in Australia. See www.XYZed.com.au for more information.

About Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as optical and wireless networks; Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on www.lucent.com, visit its Web site.

For more information:
Stephen Woodhill
Cable & Wireless Optus
Phone: (02) 9342 7850

Luisa Megale
Lucent Technologies
(612) 8267 8626 (office)
0409 839 276 (mobile)