US LEC Expands Long Distance Service - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, April 10, 2000

US LEC Corp. (Nasdaq: CLEC), a leading provider of integrated telecommunications services, Friday announced that it has expanded its long distance service to allow its business customers to choose US LEC to carry long distance calls from their branch and satellite office locations.

US LEC's customers can now choose US LEC for long distance service at a branch office, even if they do not have US LEC's local service at that branch. This provides greater flexibility to business customers with smaller branch offices that do not require a T1 or PRI connection. With this product enhancement, more customers can consolidate their long distance service from more locations with US LEC for greater simplicity and savings. In addition, work-related toll calls from home-based and remote employees can be automatically billed directly to the office.

"Customers with branch locations can see immediate benefits in cost savings and operating efficiencies by using US LEC's expanded toll service," said Jeffrey Blackey, vice president of marketing for US LEC. "Customers can choose to simplify their telecommunications services and billing by consolidating more services with US LEC, and take advantage of US LEC's low rates." Mr. Blackey continued, "The expansion of our long distance product offering makes US LEC even more competitive by expanding the set of bundled services we can offer. It also expands the number of locations and markets where we can sell our services, all through a single sales representative and on a single invoice."

This long distance offering is currently available to BellSouth's local service customers in US LEC's Southeast markets. It will be expanded to customers of other local service providers later this year. The expanded product allows businesses with smaller locations to save money by combining long distance calling volumes from sites without a T1 or PRI, with volumes from sites with a T1 or PRI access facility. Customers can choose several invoicing options.

US LEC currently offers local, long distance, data, Internet and enhanced services to customers in selected markets in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky, Washington D.C. and Maryland. In addition, US LEC is currently certified to provide telecommunications services in Delaware, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio. US LEC's network is comprised of eighteen Lucent 5ESS AlnyMedia digital switches in Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro/Winston Salem, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Richmond, Birmingham, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia/Washington D.C., Baltimore and Chattanooga, in addition to its Alcatel MegaHub 600ES switch in Charlotte. The Company primarily serves telecommunications-intensive customers including businesses, universities, financial institutions, professional service firms and practices, hospitals, enhanced service providers, Internet service providers, hotels, and government agencies.

As of February 29, 2000, US LEC reported its Customer Connections* in the following terms: Over 52,000 business trunks, over 34,000 ISP/ESP trunks, and over 15,000 business lines. US LEC can be found on the World Wide Web at www.uslec.com.

*Customer Connections is a term used by US LEC to quantify the size of its network. Prior to December 31, 1999, US LEC quantified the size of its network by reporting its number of Equivalent Access Lines in service. For a detailed explanation, visit the network description section of the Company's web site at www.uslec.com.