ASCEND LEADS REMOTE NETWORKING MARKET WITH EXPANDED PIPELINE PRODUCT LINE

New Pipeline 25-Fx, Pipeline 25-Px and Pipeline 75 Offer Small Office/Home
Office Users and Telecommuters Best Price, Most Functionality

ALAMEDA, CALIF., MAY 13, 1996 -- Ascend Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASND)
today announced it has expanded its award-winning Pipeline product line
with new products and pricing for small office/home office (SOHO) users
and telecommuters who need integrated analog and ISDN access to corporate
resources, on-line services and the Internet. The announcement reinforces
Ascend's commitment to provide leading-edge, feature-rich remote
networking solutions that are scalable, manageable and secure.

"As the ISDN end-user market continues to mature, subsets of the market are
emerging that have unique needs and requirements," said Bernie Schneider,
Ascend's vice president of marketing. "With this announcement, we've taken
the features which make our Pipeline 25 and Pipeline 50 products so
successful -- bandwidth on demand, analog device support and rock-solid
bridging and routing capabilities -- and incorporated them into three new
products that address the specific needs of the small office/home office
and corporate telecommuter markets. By expanding the breadth of our
Pipeline product line and lowering the price of our Pipeline 50
substantially, Ascend's industry-leading products are now available to
virtually all end-users who need remote access."

The three new products include the Pipeline 75 and two new Pipeline 25
models, the Pipeline 25-Fx and the Pipeline 25-Px. The Pipeline 75
combines the features and functionality of its Pipeline 25 and Pipeline 50
products into a single low-cost device. The Pipeline 25-Fx and the
Pipeline 25-Px are designed for users who require a bridging or a routing
solution at a price that is competitive with low-end ISDN terminal
adapters.

"We've developed the Pipeline 75 in direct response to requests for a
device with the remote management capabilities of the Pipeline 50 and the
analog device support of the Pipeline 25," said Bert Forbes, Ascend's
Pipeline product manager. "And our new Pipeline 25 models are an
attractive alternative to terminal adapters that have limited
functionality and throughput. For nearly the same cost, the Pipeline 25-Fx
and Pipeline 25-Px give users IP or IPX routing, up to 512 Kbits/s
throughput, dynamic bandwidth allocation and support for two analog
devices." "Ascend is now in a stronger position than ever before to
provide single-vendor, end-to-end solutions to the exploding remote
networking marketplace," said Christine Heckart, an industry analyst at
Verona, NJ-based Telechoice. "The reason for Ascend's success is its
ability to anticipate customers' needs and deliver innovative products
like those announced today that fill those needs, at the lowest total cost
of ownership in the industry."

Ascend's new products also provide new sales opportunities for resellers
and systems integrators. "No other vendor comes close to having the rich
set of features and broad range of products that Ascend has," said William
Yragui, president of Infobond, a Burlingame, Calif.-based reseller
specializing in corporate telecommuting solutions. "By delivering
high-quality products like its new Pipeline routers at an outrageously low
price, Ascend is setting a standard that its competitors will have to
fight to match."

NEW PIPELINE 75

Like other Pipeline products, the Pipeline 75 connects directly to a LAN
connectivity port of any computer and provides multiprotocol routing. Two
analog ports on the Pipeline 75 let users plug modems, telephones, fax
machines and other analog devices into one ISDN BRI line. This convenient
feature eliminates home wiring headaches, simplifies call accounting
procedures and reduces hefty charges for separate access lines.

NEW PIPELINE 25-FX

The new Pipeline 25-Fx includes all the features of the original Pipeline
25 -- analog device support, including hold, drop, transfer and
conference, bridging, optional IP or IPX routing and optional compression.
It supports up to four devices on its Ethernet segment.

NEW PIPELINE 25-PX

The new Pipeline 25-Px is a single-user, single destination, IP-only
router. With Ascend's dynamic IP access (ADIA) feature, users can access
the Internet or an IP-based remote network using inexpensive "pooled IP
address" services that cost up to $250 a month less than dedicated IP
services. With ADIA, the Pipeline 25-Px uses a temporary IP address
assigned from a pool of addresses to access the network, instead of a
permanent address assigned to that particular device. Internet Protocol
(IP) is the standard used by the Internet that allows different computer
platforms to exchange data over wide area networks.

THE PIPELINE PRODUCT LINE: The Ascend Pipeline product line provides remote
access to home office users, telecommuters, mobile workers and remote
offices. With the announcement today, the complete Pipeline product line
now includes:

* PIPELINE 25-FX. Includes one ISDN BRI port; two analog ports; bridging;
optional IP or IPX routing; optional data compression; four-user
capacity.

* PIPELINE 25-PX. Includes one ISDN BRI port; two analog ports; IP routing
through ADIA IP addressing; optional data compression; single user
capacity.

* PIPELINE 25. Includes one ISDN BRI port; two analog ports; bridging;
optional IP or IPX routing; optional data compression; unlimited user
capacity.

* PIPELINE 50. Available in ST and U interface. Includes one ISDN or
Switched 56 port; IP and IPX routing; bridging of all other protocols;
SNMP; Telnet; Syslog management; unlimited user capacity.

* PIPELINE 75. Available now in ST and U interface. Includes one ISDN port;
two analog ports; IP and IPX routing; bridging of all other protocols;
SNMP management; unlimited user capacity.

* PIPELINE 130. Two ports support one ISDN BRI or Switched 56 connection
and one frame relay or leased line connection at speeds ranging from 56
Kbit/s up to T1; IP and IPX routing; bridging of all other protocols; SNMP
management; unlimited user capacity..

The Pipeline family of remote networking products, together with the
industry-leading MAX family of WAN access switches, offer scalable,
end-to-end remote networking solutions to organizations of all sizes.
According to the Dell'Oro Report, over 90 percent of the central site
switches sold to large corporations, on-line service providers and
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are manufactured by Ascend. The report
also shows that Ascend has captured 46.5 percent of the worldwide ISDN
remote networking equipment market in 1995, and continues to accelerate
its market leadership position in the United States, as well as in Europe
and the Pacific Rim.

Ascend Communications, Inc. is a leading, worldwide provider of remote
networking solutions for corporate central sites, Internet Service
Providers' points of presence, remote offices, mobile workers and
telecommuters. Ascend develops, manufactures, markets, sells and supports
products which utilize bandwidth on demand to extend existing corporate
networks for applications such as remote LAN access, Internet access,
telecommuting, SOHO connectivity and videoconferencing/multimedia access.
Detailed information on Ascend products, news announcements, seminars,
service and support is available on Ascend's home page at the World Wide
Web site http://www.ascend.com.

Ascend is headquartered at 1275 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, CA 94502
Phone: 800-621-9578; fax 510-214-2300;
E-mail: info@ascend.com.
Ascend's World Wide Web address is http://www.ascend.com.
 
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