Penton Media Announces Launch of Last Mile Conference and Exhibition To Address Growing Field of Competition in Broadband Services Arena

Business Wire, June 21, 2001

Business/Technology Editors

Last Mile Fall 2001

DARIEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 2001

Broadband Access Seen as New Battleground for Providers

Penton Media (NYSE: PME, http://www.penton.com) proudly announces the launch of a new event focused on the "Last Mile" - referring to the local loop that links homes and businesses to the worldwide telecommunications infrastructure. Evolved from CLECexpo, the leading industry forum for Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs), Last Mile Fall 2001 will expand to include all access carriers, and concentrate its focus to helping service providers solve the Last Mile bottleneck. The new show, slated for October 9 - 11, 2001 will be co-located with ISPCON and ASPCON at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas.

"The last mile has become the focal point to satisfy an insatiable demand for state-of-the-art broadband communication services," said Carol Smith, Penton's Group Show Director for Last Mile Fall 2001. According to Infonetics Research's worldwide market share and forecast service, Infonetics predicts the market for metropolitan equipment in North America will grow from $6.3 billion in revenue in 2000 to $17.2 billion by 2003, an increase of 175 percent. "Examining the industry's most viable last mile delivery methods and successful business models will be the focus of Last Mile Fall 2001."

The show is a natural evolution from CLECexpo, reflecting Penton Media's high standard for hosting critical, industry focused events. The show will be an all-encompassing forum that examines opportunities and challenges facing voice, video and data providers.

From residential and business access to metropolitan area networks and long-haul transport, the forum will showcase cutting-edge solutions for providers offering such diverse services as DSL, broadband cable, fixed wireless, voice and data convergence and fiber optics.

In addition to technologies, Last Mile will address other wide-ranging aspects of the broadband marketplace. Educational sessions will focus on federal and state regulatory issues, successful business models, marketing strategies, Operations Support Systems, financial markets and more. Industry leaders will serve as keynote speakers each day of the conference, while the exhibit hall will feature scores of vendors displaying groundbreaking products and services.

The importance of the last mile marketplace is underscored by an IDC forecast placing the Internet economy at $3 trillion by 2003. Telecommunications magazine reports that many industry experts agree with the IDC forecast, conditional upon a last-mile infrastructure robust enough to achieve an unconstrained network. "Last Mile is essentially poised as the catalyst to a new Internet economy, if and only if the bottleneck in the last mile can be broken," said Smith.

The event will also continue Penton Media's tradition of allowing for networking and deal-making, and Last Mile Fall 2001 has been designed with ample opportunity for unstructured dialog and collaboration to distil conclusions and questions uncovered on the show floor and during the conference.

For additional information about attending or exhibiting at Last Mile Fall 2001, visit www.lastmilefall.com or call 800-632-5537 to register.

Last Mile Fall 2001 (www.lastmilefall.com) is produced by Penton Media's Service Provider Events Group located in Golden, CO. The group also produces ISPCON (www.ispcon.com), the leading Internet Service Provider conventions and ASPCON (www.aspcon.com), the leading conventions for Application Service Providers.

Penton Media (NYSE: PME) is a leading, global business-to-business media company that produces market-focused magazines, trade shows and conferences, and Web sites. Penton's integrated media portfolio serves the following industries: Internet/broadband; information technology; electronics; natural products; food/retail; manufacturing; design/engineering; supply chain; aviation; government/compliance; mechanical systems/construction; and leisure/hospitality. For more information, visit http://www.penton.com.