Office.com Ranks Highest in Brand Recognition Among Online Business Centers in Yankee Group Survey

Business Wire, Jan 30, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JAN. 30, 2001

WINSTAR COMMUNICATIONS, INC.'s (NASDAQ: WCII) Office.com(R) ranked highest in brand awareness among Online Business Centers in a study conducted by the Yankee Group's Small and Medium Business Communications Planning Service.

Other companies included in the aided brand awareness test were Microsoft bCentral, Onvia.com, Inc.com, Works.com and AllBusiness.com.

"Winstar's Office.com enjoys a clear lead among small and medium-sized business with about 64 percent brand recognition," said J.P Gownder, analyst at Yankee Group. "Widespread brand recognition of this sort may be advantageous for selling goods where high volume is key to creating profit margins and attracting high-quality advertising dollars."

The Yankee Group survey found 64 percent of small and medium-sized businesses surveyed recognized the Office.com brand -- 20 percent greater than brand recognition of Microsoft bCentral. Inc. com finished third, while the other Online Business Centers were recognized by less than 20 percent of respondents.

The Yankee Group telephone survey was conducted in August 2000 with 753 very small, small and medium-sized businesses. Brand awareness data were reported for the 544 respondents with Internet access.

About Yankee Group

A global leader in leader in technology research and strategic consulting, The Yankee Group provides impartial, and personalized one-to-one technology advice, customized research, and management consulting that encompasses all areas essential to e-business success: the Internet, electronic commerce, communications, wireless/mobile, computing, and enterprise applications. Headquartered in Boston, the Yankee Group's Web site may be found at www.yankeegroup.com.

About Office.com

Office.com(R), A Service From Winstar (www.office.com), delivers a competitive edge to small and medium-sized businesses from a single, comprehensive site. Office.com provides in-depth business content covering nearly 150 industries, useful business tools, top-rated products and services in its e-commerce area, and the applications to transform companies into thriving e-businesses.

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.

Winstar and Office.com are registered trademarks of Winstar Communications, Inc.

Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.