Contact:

Charlie Hartley 908-508-8226 (office) cjhartley@agere.com CT Expo (Booth #2263)

Samantha Baxter 908 508 8225 (office) 908 230 3867 (cellular)

Agere Systems Announces StarFabric Bridge Chip That Provides Scalability for Computer Telephony Servers, VoIP Gateways

Solution Can Provide up to 128 Times the Voice Processing Capacity

LOS ANGELES - March 6, 2001 - Agere Systems, the former Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU), today announced a highly scaleable, higher-capacity switching chip solution for computer telephony servers, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) gateways, wireless base stations, and other high density communications network equipment. The Ambassador™ T8150 H.100/H.110* to StarFabric** Bridge solution can provide up to 128 times the voice processing capacity, while helping to reduce electronics costs and time to market intervals. The solution is being announced during this week's CT Expo show here (booth #2263).

The T8150, which functions as a bridge between the H.100/H.110 bus and the StarFabric switch fabric, can connect 128 H.100/H.110 bus segments together, which translates to up to 128 times the voice processing capacity of today's typical standards-based H.100/H.110 products. By using the T8150 and the StarFabric, customers can add scalability to their systems while preserving the investment in their existing circuit packs.

"Communications equipment manufacturers who use this solution can elegantly migrate their system capacity at a pace that is right for them, while reusing existing electronics circuitry. This helps to protect their investments and reduce the requirement for complete upgrades," said Ed Nuber, marketing manager with Agere Systems. "We understand the issues confronting equipment manufacturers who want to build larger systems yet have concerns about how to increase their capacity in such systems. By using the T8150 along with the StarFabric technology, they can bridge multiple H.100/H.110 bus segments together, which can greatly bolster their system capacities."

H.100/H110 is a widely embraced time division multiplex bus standard for voice switching applications. The StarFabric switch fabric, which consists of one or more six- port star devices and at least one Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)***-to-StarFabric bridge for operations, administration, and maintenance, provides the backbone transport media to connect H.100/H.110 buses together. The StarFabric switch fabric provides an efficient, cost-effective information traffic highway between the various processing and input/output elements within a communications system.

Agere is a founding member of the StarFabric Working Group. Announced at the Bus and Board 2001 Conference in January 2001, the group consists of companies working together to bring StarFabric technology to the market. Other members of the group include Bustronics, Elma Electronics, FCI Electronics, Motorola Computer Group, Natural MicroSystems, Pigeon Point Systems, StarGen, Inc., and Sun Microsystems.

Features of the T8150 include: an H.100/H.110 interface; redundant StarFabric interface ports; a 4,096 unified time slot switch; and a local time division multiplexing (TDM) bus interface to support 32 local TDM streams. The T8150 has the horsepower to bridge the entire H.100/H.110 bus and all 32 local TDM streams to the StarFabric simultaneously. Each T8150 can support optical carrier (OC)-3 data rates of up to 155 Megabits per second.

In addition to its scalability, the Agere Systems T8150 solution complements other Ambassador product family devices such as the Ambassador T8110 PCI** based H.100/H.110 Switch and Packet Payload Engine, which was announced last week.

Sample quantities of the new T8150 are scheduled to be available in September. The T8150 is priced at $75 in quantities of 10,000.

Online datasheets, application notes, and notifications can be found at http://www.agere.com/ambassador. Customers may also call the Agere Systems Customer Response Center at 1-800-372-2447; from the USA, Department N78 (in Canada 1-800-553-2448, Department N78); fax number 1-610-712-4106;outside of North America, call 1-610-712-4323; email: docmaster@micro.lucent.com; or write to Agere Systems, Room 30L-15P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, Pa. 18109.

Agere Systems Inc., the former Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies, is the world leader in semiconductors for communications applications. Lucent has announced it intends to spin off Agere Systems as an independent company. Agere Systems offers integrated optoelectronics and integrated circuit solutions to help customers reduce the time and expense of developing new communications equipment. It also provides wireless computer networking solutions through its ORiNOCO product line. More information about Agere Systems is available from its Web site at http://www.agere.com.

* H.100 applies to PCI-based systems (ribbon cable)
* H.110 applies to cPCI systems (backplane chassis)
** StarFabric is a registered trademark of StarGen, Inc.
*** PCI is a standard for connecting peripherals to a personal computer.

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This release does not constitute and offering of any securities, which will be made only by a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current information available to the company as of the date hereof that involve risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those results stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, completion of a distribution of Agere stock by Lucent Technologies Inc., price and product competition, keeping pace with technological change, dependence on new product development, reliance on major customers and suppliers, customer demand for our products and services, availability of manufacturing capacity, components and materials, control of costs and expenses, general industry and market conditions and growth rates and general domestic and international economic conditions, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations.