San Jose, Calif., September 24, 1996 -- -- The Uniphase Corporation (NASDAQ: UNPH) today announced that Uniphase Telecommunications Products ("UTP) Transmission Systems Division has been named as a value-added reseller by the Optoelectronics Division of Northern Telecom (Nortel) in North America for its analog and digital Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) which are produced in the United Kingdom.

UTP’s Transmission Systems Division will market Nortel’s EDFAs in North America. UTP has already been providing Nortel’s EDFAs to its Transmission Systems Division customers in a 19" rack configuration and Nortel’s gain blocks in custom configurations engineered by UTP.

Don Stalter, External Business Director of Nortel’s Optoelectronics Division said that, "UTP helps put our EDFAs into the custom configurations this marketplace needs. The appointment of UTP as our value-added reseller in North America will allow both of us to concentrate on what we do best: Nortel will continue to advance its state-of-the-art EDFA technology and UTP will provide the custom packaging of EDFAs OEM customers want".

Eitan Gertel, UTP Transmission System Division’s General Manager added, "Telephone companies around the world have been migrating to the 1550nm window to take advantage of its low attenuation and the ability to use EDFAs for optical amplification rather then expensively regenerate the signal’s. In the past few months, we’ve also seen the CATV industry embracing the 1550nm technology. UTP’s transmitter technology, in combination with Nortel’s EDFA technology, will give a state-of-the-art cost effective system to our customers. This appointment means that we will continue to provide our customers with the very best overall 1550nm technology in the world."