Sage Telecom Caps Year With 250,000 Customer Lines; Competitive Local Service Provider Validates Success of Competition in Local Telephone Markets

Business Wire, Dec 13, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2001

Sage Telecom, an innovative provider of telecommunications services to residential and small business customers, announced today that it has surpassed 250,000 customer lines in service.

The Company reported an 83% growth in customer lines for the year.

Company officials said their continued success affirms consumer demand for choice in local service providers created by the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Company, which has experienced explosive growth in Texas during the past three years, recently initiated service in Kansas and Arkansas. Sage plans further expansion into Oklahoma and Missouri in 2002.

"We have succeeded where others have failed to profitably provide customers with competitively priced choices and a high level of service," said Dennis M. Houlihan, President and CEO of Sage. "We continue to support the provisions for competition allowed under current law, and we believe consumer response validates our position."

Sage Telecom is a standout in terms of its financial success as a company and its unique approach to cultivating the residential consumer and small business customer. Keeping costs low, passing savings on to customers, and being responsive as their local service provider have played central roles in the Company's market success.

"Despite the negative perceptions of the telecom industry in recent months, Sage is driven by consumer demand for choice, and our performance shows that consumer demand is still high," Houlihan said. "We are supportive of the efforts of federal and state regulators to protect the integrity of the Telecom Act and the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P) that allows us to provide small users a choice in local service provider."

Sage Telecom, with 300 employees headquartered in Allen, Texas, provides local exchange, long distance, and other enhanced services to mass market residential and small business customers. The Company provisions services through a combination of proprietary operating support systems (OSS), electronic data interfaces (EDI bonding), and unbundled network elements (UNEs) supplied by Southwestern Bell. The Company was founded in 1996 and entered its first local service market in August 1998. Sage Telecom is privately held and is one of only a handful of profitable CLECs in the country. The Company has posted earnings and positive cash flow for the past two years.