Wireless Communications Association Honors Winstar With Awards for ASP Leadership and Government Services - WCA

Business Wire, Jan 18, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JAN. 18, 2001

WINSTAR COMMUNICATIONS, INC. (NASDAQ: WCII), a leading broadband services company, announced today that it has received separate Wireless Communications Association (WCA) awards for ASP (application service provider) industry leadership and for the company's groundbreaking efforts to provide broadband services to the federal government. Winstar will be presented with the two tributes at an awards banquet this evening, as part of the WCA's Seventh Annual Wireless Technical Symposium, which is taking place from January 17-19 in San Jose, California.

The company was selected for these awards, known as "Wemmies," by a distinguished panel of fixed wireless broadband industry leaders. This panel was charged with recognizing the companies and individuals that have had the greatest impact on the development and delivery of fixed wireless broadband technologies.

"Through its ASP vision and its success within the federal government's Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) program, Winstar continues to establish itself as a leading broadband services company," said WCA President Andrew Kreig. "As Winstar's efforts clearly illustrate, the acceptance of broadband fixed wireless as a highly reliable, rapidly deployable and cost effective last-mile broadband technology continues to grow in the marketplace."

The WCA panel selected Winstar as the winner of the award for "Best Application Service Provider Vision & Deployment." Winstar's ASP strategy focuses on providing advanced business applications over its widely available broadband network. During the past year, Winstar entered into a number of groundbreaking strategic alliances with leading software makers, including Microsoft, Oracle and Great Plains, as well as top equipment makers such as Cisco and Compaq. As a result of these relationships, Winstar has evolved into one of the world's leading ASPs, offering Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office Online, as well as Oracle database, ERP and CRM applications.

Winstar also won a WCA award in the category of the "Best Agreements with Government to Build a New Market or Service Through Fixed Wireless." Throughout 2000, Winstar secured 11 MAA contracts, valued at up to $2.7 billion, from the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service. Winstar is the only broadband services company and provider of broadband fixed wireless services that has been approved to provide data and voice services to the metropolitan offices of federal government agencies in these 11 markets. Until Winstar secured these contracts, all previous awards had been made to incumbent local exchange carriers and/or AT&T.

"These honors from the WCA are further evidence that our very focused efforts to aggressively grow our ASP and government service businesses are paying off," said Nate Kantor, president and chief operating officer for Winstar. "The ASP and government markets highlight both the functionality and reach of our broadband network and services. Each initiative will continue to be a key area of focus within our overall business strategy."

About WCA & Its Technical Symposium

WCA is the major non-profit trade association for the fixed wireless broadband industry, with 430 member companies on six continents that represent the vast bulk of the world's leading carriers, vendors and consultants. WCA's annual Technical Symposium annually gathers operators who are using group action to provide guidance to vendors, standards bodies and regulators on technical issues that will be vital for successful BWA deployments. This year's Symposium is chaired by Dr. Jay Ramasastry of Winstar Communications, with Nortel Networks (www.nortelnetworks.com) as the lead sponsor. The other major sponsors are Ensemble Communications, ADC, Adaptive Broadband, Thomcast, Aperto Networks and Alcatel. Details, registration and photos of honorees available through WCA's website: http://www.wcai.com

About Winstar

Winstar is a leading broadband services company. The company is rapidly building one of the world's most widely available, end-to-end broadband networks. Winstar makes this network important and useful to businesses by providing a comprehensive set of high-quality, digital-age broadband services. These services include high-speed Internet and data, Web hosting and design, phone services, Web-based applications, e-commerce, professional services and Office.com(R), A Service From Winstar, the top-ranked online business service for small and medium-sized businesses.

For more information, visit www.winstar.com

This release contains forward-looking information about management expectations, strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated financial or operational performance, and other similar matters. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve important risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond Winstar's control, could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the expectations expressed in these statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, volatility in the financial and capital markets, actions and initiatives by current and potential competitors, events or circumstances impacting major customers or suppliers, the effect of current and future legislation or regulation, the ability of the company to design and construct its broadband network and to sell and provision services, and additional factors described in the reports filed by Winstar with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Winstar's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, which is available on the SEC's Web site, at www.sec.gov. Winstar undertakes no responsibility to update or revise any statements in this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.