The new center will have two locations in its region, Kuopio and Varkaus, and will focus on developing broadband access solutions for tomorrow’s converged networks. Tellabs Savo, located in the heart of a technology-rich university community, will create more than 50 job opportunities in the next three years.

Tellabs Savo center will open in interim facilities in March 2001 and move to new state-of-the-art technology centers, currently under construction, during the second quarter of 2002. The cities of Kuopio and Varkaus are building these new technology centers for Tellabs in order to build ties between the areas’ technology talent and leading IT companies.

The new Tellabs facilities will initially focus on the company’s broadband access solutions, engineer the MartisDXX(R) Core and Mobile Access product family and work with different network element projects.

Tellabs recruits the best talent around the world, said Seppo Borenius, director of research and development in Finland. As a significant technology hub, Savo is an ideal location to expand our company’s research and development efforts and help Tellabs deliver the latest broadband access solutions to our customers.

Tellabs currently has seven facilities and more than 1,000 employees in three cities in Finland. Tellabs Oulu and Tampere employees focus on research and development for hardware, network and service management. Tellabs employees in Espoo manage product development, customer service, manufacturing, marketing and support functions. Tellabs employs more than 2,600 people in research and development in Finland, India, Canada and the United States.