Bulgartel Builds Nationwide Bulgarian Network With Infinera

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - April 17, 2008) - Bulgarian telecom carrier Bulgartel has selected the Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) Digital Optical Networking system for a nationwide Bulgarian optical network. The new network will enable Bulgartel to provide greater capacity and new services to its customers within Bulgaria and to customers requiring international connectivity, as Bulgaria becomes an increasingly important hub for international communications. System integrator SmartCom Bulgaria AD is providing support services for the new network.

Bulgartel offers wavelength, SDH, and IP services on its network. Bulgartel has experienced growth in bandwidth demand in excess of 100 percent a year, driven by rapid growth in broadband penetration among consumers, increasing use of IP networks by the corporate sector, and fast-growing Internet traffic traveling from Western Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Growing Internet use in the Middle East and Central Asia is driving more IP traffic through Bulgaria and Turkey, the main communications crossroads linking those markets to Western Europe. Within Bulgaria, broadband penetration to the home is growing rapidly, driven by low subscription charges and widespread availability of access connections. Rising prosperity today is enabling more and more consumers to subscribe to Internet services.

Bulgartel chose Infinera because Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization™ architecture enables Bulgartel to install and configure circuits quickly and cost-effectively in a range of protocols and bit rates including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and SDH, from STM-1 to STM-64. In addition, the simplicity and ease of operation of the Infinera system allows Bulgartel to deploy the network with a much smaller team of optical experts than would be possible with a traditional DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) optical system.

"We chose Infinera because it fits perfectly our company strategy for responding to customer service requests with the best quality and the fastest response time. Growing competition in the Bulgarian market requires Bulgartel to adopt the most competitive technologies and marketing policies. So we have chosen to start with the implementation of a state of the art technology, Infinera's digital optical networking systems," said Dimitar Bambov, CEO of Bulgartel.

"The Bulgarian telecom market is highly competitive, and the large-scale photonic integration of the Infinera DTN system gives Bulgartel a competitive advantage empowering Bulgartel to offer a range of new high-capacity services," commented Bisser Ivanov, managing director of SmartCom Bulgaria AD, a system integrator based in Sofia, Bulgaria, that provides nationwide design, implementation, and support services to Bulgartel.

"We are very pleased to support Bulgartel with a new Infinera network," said Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh. "Bulgaria is a vibrant, fast-growing market, open to new ideas and new technologies, which makes Infinera's Digital Optical Networks a great fit."

The Infinera DTN is a Digital ROADM for long-haul and metro core networks based on large-scale photonic integrated circuits, combining high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform.

About Infinera

Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers worldwide. Infinera's systems are unique in their use of a breakthrough semiconductor technology: the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Infinera's systems and PIC technology are designed to provide optical networks with simpler and more flexible engineering and operations, faster time-to-service, and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.infinera.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, such as the benefits and capabilities of our products and the Digital Optical Network's architecture, that we believe Bandwidth Virtualization™ architecture enables Bulgartel to install and configure circuits quickly and cost-effectively in a range of protocols and bit rates including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and SDH, from STM-1 to STM-64, and that the simplicity and ease of operation of the Infinera system allows Bulgartel to deploy the network with a much smaller team of optical experts than would be possible with a traditional DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) optical system. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated," "believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our ability to protect our intellectual property, claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property, our manufacturing process is very complex, product performance problems we may encounter, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers, our ability to respond to rapid technological changes, our ability to maintain effective internal controls, the ability of our contract manufacturers to perform as we expect, a new technology being developed that replaces the PIC as the dominant technology in optical networks, general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 19, 2008, our public announcements and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact Information: For further information Media: Jeff Ferry Infinera Tel. +1-408-572-5213 Investors: Bob Blair Infinera Tel. +1-408-716-4879