Florham Park, NJ, March 12, 2002 - Xtellus, maker of dynamic optics components for reconfigurable optical networks, announced today that Dr. Krishna Bala has joined the company's board of directors.

Dr. Bala is a co-founder and the chief technical officer of Tellium (Nasdaq:TELM), the world's first provider of in-service core optical switches. Dr. Bala is the lead system architect for Tellium's high-capacity, highly scalable core optical switches.

Prior to joining Tellium, Dr. Bala was a senior scientist in the Optical Networking Group of Bellcore, where he was responsible for local exchange optical networking architecture development and analysis. During his tenure there, he received the Bellcore President's Award for outstanding achievement.

Dr. Bala is a pioneer in the field of optical switching and networking, holding several patents. He is co-author of Multiwavelength Optical Networks: A Layered Approach (Prentice Hall 1999), and is a former chairman of the signaling working group of the Optical Internetworking Forum, an industry organization that develops optical networking standards.

"We are delighted to have Krishna on our board of directors," said Gil Cohen, Xtellus' president and chief executive officer. "Krishna is a recognized leader in the optical networking world, with extensive market contacts and product development experience. We are fortunate for the valuable insights and guidance he will give Xtellus as we define our products and grow our presence in the marketplace."

Xtellus develops, manufactures and markets best-in-class dynamic optics components and modules for multiwavelength, reconfigurable optical networking systems. Xtellus products provide wavelength management and optical power control functionality and include components such as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers.