Hitachi and Ledcor Technical Services to Present Leveraged GPON Deployment Case Study at Digital City Expo 2007

ATLANTA, GA, March 29, 2007 – Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc., and Ledcor Technical Services (LTS) today announced that the two companies will jointly present a case study entitled “Leveraged Deployment of GPON Technology - Coquille, Oregon.” The presentation will describe how the Coquille project, currently underway, leverages the existing fiber to the premises (FTTP) deployment in nearby Bandon, Oregon. The case study will be presented at the Digital City Expo Conference, to be held in Reston, Virginia on April 2-4, 2007 (See www.digitalcityexpo.com).   Scott Wilkinson, PhD, vice president, Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc., Ashwin Chitamun, senior vice president, LTS, and Todd Richard, vice president and chief technology officer, LTS, will describe how the companies are extending the FTTP services to Coquille.

Dr. Wilkinson of Hitachi will present an overview of GPON technology, and Mr. Chitamun and Mr. Richard, will discuss the Coquille project, including key criteria for evaluating and approving the deployment, the considerations for a high speed optical link between the two cities, and how certain resources built for Bandon are being leveraged for the Coquille project.

 “GPON technology will allow LTS to economically provide Coquille with one of the most advanced network architectures in the world. Coquille will be able to enjoy the same high-quality data, video, and voice services that their neighbors in Bandon have been using for the last year, and the network architecture will provide more than enough bandwidth to meet the needs of Coquille’s residents far into the future,” said Hitachi’s Wilkinson.  Added Mr. Chitamun of LTS, “The business model utilized by LTS is attractive to many communities because as a commercial business venture, it is privately funded and avoids the objections that are sometimes raised when such projects are undertaken by government entities.”

About Hitachi’s AMN1220 Product Family

The AMN1220 FTTP platform is a family of high-performance GPON products that provide ultra high bandwidth communication services to residential, business and institutional subscribers using a single optical fiber direct to the subscriber’s premises.  Compliant with ITU-T G.984 standards, the AMN1220 provides data rates of 2.488Gbit/s downstream and 1.244Gbit/s upstream. Standards compliance provides assurance that service providers will have maximum flexibility in implementing FTTP solutions as applications and services are added in the future. Legacy TDM services such as T1 are seamlessly handled in their native formats using GPON Encapsulation Mode (GEM) framing.

The AMN1220 consists of a centrally located Optical Line Terminal (OLT) connected via single-mode fiber optic cable to Optical Network Terminals (ONT) at the subscribers’ premises. The OLT is equipped with a hybrid Layer 2/3 + TDM switch fabric for flexible traffic management and consolidation.  ONTs include the GST, a single family / small business unit, and the GMT, a configurable multi-dwelling/multi-business ONT.  All ONTs can provide a Gigabit Ethernet line rate interface to the subscriber, enabling a wide range of business applications today and providing future proofing for both residential and business networks.

About Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc.

Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc., a subsidiary of Hitachi America, Ltd., develops, manufactures and markets telecommunications equipment for the North American market. The company offers ITU-compliant Gigabit Passive Optical Network ‘triple play’ solutions for Fiber-to-the-Premises applications, and ultra high-speed optical networking equipment such as DWDM and SONET systems.  For more information on Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc., visit http://www.hitachitelecom.com.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information on Hitachi America, visit
http://www.hitachi.us.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.

About ComSpan Bandon Networks. ComSpan Bandon Networks operates the FTTP network in Bandon, Oregon and is responsible for the marketing and operation of the new FTTP network being built in Coquille. ComSpanUSA is a facilities-based CLEC headquartered in Roseburg, Oregon. ComSpan Bandon Networks and ComSpan USA are subsidiaries of LTS. For more information please visit the company’s website at www.comspanusa.net .

About LTS. A wholly owned subsidiary within the Ledcor Group of Companies (www.ledcor.com), LTS consists of three separate divisions that combined provide a full range of services that offer our customers a North America-wide full service program. LTS Managed Technical Services focuses on the Telecommunications sector and provides field and central office maintenance, electronics installation and construction management services. LTS Infrastructure Services provides engineering and construction services to the Telecommunications, Utilities and Industrial sectors. LTS Network Development provides network design, detailed engineering, turnkey deployment, construction and project management services as well as systems integration and ongoing maintenance to communities, service providers or established operating companies to bring FTTP triple play (voice, data, and TV) services, using state of the art fiber, to residential and businesses customers in mid to small rural communities across the nation.