"The Search for the Last Mile" - Experts to Debate the Holy Grail of the Internet Industry At Ispcon Baltimore '99.

WESTPORT, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 1999--

Record Attendance Levels Predicted for April 27-29 Show, To Be

Held At The Baltimore Convention Center 

Will DSL squash cable modems? What can ISPs learn from CLECs and Telcos? When should an ISP become a CLEC? Is wireless the answer to providing broadband service? These are just some of the topics to be tackled at Penton Media's (NYSE:PME) ISPCON Baltimore '99 show, to be held April 27-29, 1999 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

The access strategy debate gets off to a quick start on Tuesday, April 27 -- the first full day of the show -- as moderator Natalie Robb, an analyst with Telechoice, compares the benefits of cable versus DSL with a panel that includes Jim Dondero, the Director of Service Provider Marketing at Nortel Public Data Networks, Jim Albrycht, a Product Marketing Manager with Nortel Networks, and Larry Blair, the Vice President of Marketing with Redback Networks. This panel, identified as Session 120 in the show program, will highlight the key differences and benefits of these two access technologies, and will discuss how broadband subscriber management can be used to reduce operating costs and create profitable new services.

During the same time period, another distinguished panel will discuss why an ISP should consider becoming a CLEC, exploring the business implications and the process of obtaining CLEC status. The moderator of Session 121 is telecommunications attorney Rudolph Geist of Artis, Hedrick & Lane. He will be joined on the panel by attorney David Simpson of Young, Vogl, Wilkes, Harlick, Wilson & Simpson and Steve Molner, the Director of the Maryland Public Service Commission's Telecommunications Division.

If you have not yet deployed DSL for your network, you won't want to miss Session 214, in which Patrick Kuchever, Director of Data Services for Focal Communications Corp., focuses on this leading edge access technology, discussing the benefits and problems of dial access and DSL, as well as the physical and financial realities of implementing new digital access networks.

Things really heat up on Wednesday, as Session 713 asks "Will DSL squash cable modems?" Joe Peck, the DSL Product Manager for Concentric Network will lead a discussion examining how DSL will take the small business market by storm and how service providers would be well advised to leave the home market to cable. Peck argues that DSL providers will find phenomenal success is with small business and telecommuters seeking an alternative to T-1 or ISDN access.

For more information about these and all the ISPCON '99 informational sessions, visit http://ispcon.internet.com/spring99/index.html.

Each year ISPCON gathers thousands of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs), Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs), Cable Operators and Web Hosting companies for an intense educational event focused on learning, developing and discovering the latest Internet products, services and technologies.

Penton Media, Inc. (NYSE:PME) is a leading diversified business media company that publishes magazines and electronic information products, produces trade shows and conferences, and provides marketing and business development products and services, including direct mail lists, research and custom publishing. Penton serves the design/engineering; electronics; Internet/IT; food/hospitality; government/compliance; leisure; management; manufacturing; mechanical systems/construction; and supply chain/aviation markets.

All current Internet World press releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.internet.com/penton/corporate/pentonpress.html