>The following press release was issued over the wire at 8:00 AM, Tuesday,
>June 9, 1998:
>
>
>FORE Systems Contacts:
>Rich Borden/Jim Blew
>Public Relations
>Phone: (724) 742-4444
>Fax: (724) 742-7742
>Email: rborden@fore.com/jblew@fore.com
>
>FORE ATM GIVES LEGS TO TIME WARNER'S ROAD RUNNER HIGH-SPEED WEB ACCESS SERVICE
>
>High-performance WAN Solution Supports aVariety of Interactive Services for
>Florida Customers
>
>Atlanta, GA - June 9, 1998 - Crawling web pages, busy signals from Internet
>Service Providers (ISPs) and other roadblocks on the information highway
>are now a thing of the past for home PC users in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/
>Clearwater area, thanks to a high-speed cable Web access service from Time
>Warner Communications that runs over an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)
>backbone provided by FORE Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORE), a global supplier
>of networking solutions based on an Intelligent Infrastructure.
>
>The announcement was made today at the SuperComm '98 exhibition in Atlanta
>(Booth #7407).
>
>Time Warner's new ATM network supports the company's innovative Road Runner
>Web access service. Road Runner is a unique, two-way cable modem service
>that provides instantaneous Internet access, email and other services at
>speeds up to 100 times faster than conventional telephone modems.
>Introduced in August 1997, Road Runner is currently used by several
>thousand subscribers in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater
>region-Time-Warner's second-largest service area.
>
>The network also will be used to support Time Warner's new Pegasus digital
>video service, offering more than 200 channels, scheduled for roll-out
>during the second quarter of 1998. In addition, the company plans to
>utilize the network for its impulse pay-per-view service-which will enable
>subscribers to interactively order movies and other events through their
>televisions-with roll-out targeted for the third quarter of 1998.
>
>Time Warner's Road Runner network runs over an OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) SONET that
>stretches over a 100-mile radius in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater
>area. ForeRunner ASX-1000 ATM switches located in Time Warner's North
>Tampa data center anchor the ATM backbone. The system's 45 network
>servers, comprising more than 4 terabytes of data, are connected to the
>network over OC-3 (155 Mbps) fiber and are equipped with ForeRunner ATM
>adapter cards. Currently, 27 of the system's 70 local distribution hubs
>house ForeRunner ASX-200BX ATM switches, which connect to the data center
>over an OC-48 fiber backbone. Each distribution hub services approximately
>20,000 homes. Each neighborhood in a given distribution area, representing
>approximately 500 homes, is connected to a single port on the ForeRunner
>ASX-200BX, enabling Time-Warner to provide each home with
>10BaseT-equivalent service (up to 10 Mbps throughput).
>
>"ATM offers a number of inherent advantages that make it the logical
>backbone technology choice for Time Warner," says Mark Bailey, vice
>president and general manager, online services, for Time Warner
>Communications. "Aggregating traffic over the ATM backbone gives us fast,
>reliable, secure communication required for a wide range of services
>connected with Road Runner. It also gives us the bandwidth required to
>handle a much wider range of products over the same fiber-optic
>infrastructure. ATM allows us to utilize the bandwidth as we need it,
>without having to add costly new fiber."
>
>According to Bailey, ATM's inherent flexibility and scalability will enable
>Time Warner to leverage its infrastructure investment to generate
>incremental revenue growth from current customers and attract new subscribers.
>
>"We see the future of ATM as very bright in this industry," Bailey says.
>"The types of products operators will roll out in the future will be
>extremely bandwidth-intensive, and ATM's ability to scale to as much as
>OC-48 will be essential for getting these services to our customers. The
>ability to add these services and other new applications to our existing
>fiber ring via ATM enables us to not only justify the investment in
>fiber-optic, but to extend that investment's return well into the future."
>
>Bailey notes that FORE's ATM solution was selected based on both
>performance and price criteria.
>
>"FORE Systems has a reputation as a leader in ATM technology, the products
>to back up that claim, and they've been doing cell switching longer than
>anyone-while other vendors continue to push frame or packet traffic over
>ATM," says Bailey. "FORE's engineering team presented a compelling
>argument for price and performance, and the applications they have placed
>in the field demonstrate the trust that major companies have placed in
>FORE's products. The solution they've provided is top-notch, and their
>technical support adds an equally important comfort level. We're very
>comfortable with the relationship."
>
>"To see the future of high-performance networking, one need look no further
>than Time Warner Communications," says Ron McKenzie, vice president,
>strategic marketing, FORE Systems. "We're proud to provide the Intelligent
>Infrastructure that enables consumers to enjoy the convenience of low-cost,
>high-performance communication and entertainment services like Road Runner
>and Pegasus."
>
>About FORE Systems
>FORE Systems is a leading global supplier of networking solutions based on
>an Intelligent Infrastructure designed to handle the networked applications
>of today and tomorrow.
>
>FORE's Networks of Steel deliver the increased capacity, reduced complexity
>and unparalleled flexibility and scalability necessary to build networks
>that last. Thousands of enterprise and service provider customers
>worldwide have put FORE Systems' solutions at the heart of their networks.
>
>For more information on FORE's Networks of Steel, call (888) 404-0444 or
>visit the FORE Systems web site at www.fore.com.
>
>This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to
>products, customers and other matters. Please refer to the Annual Report
>on Form 10-K filed by FORE Systems with the Securities and Exchange
>Commission in June, 1997 for a discussion of risks that could cause actual
>results to differ materially from such statements.
>
># # #
>
>All FORE Systems' editorial information and graphics can be found on
>NEWSdesk, the high-tech Internet Network at newsdesk.com.
>
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