2nd Century Communications Signs Interconnection Agreement for Entire BellSouth Region; Agreement Enables Aggressive Expansion in the Southeast.

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1999--

2nd Century Communications, a second-generation competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), today announced an interconnection agreement with BellSouth that allows 2nd Century to provide facilities-based local exchange service throughout BellSouth's nine state region.

The agreement, signed on June 16, 1999, enables 2nd Century to move forward building its 50 city ATM-based local exchange network.

The interconnection agreement covers the entire BellSouth territory including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 2nd Century will be able to begin offering local service as soon as it receives competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) certificates in each state.

"Having a nine state agreement allows 2nd Century to accelerate the deployment of its network throughout the BellSouth region," said John Prisco, 2nd Century's president and CEO. "We will be able to quickly start delivering telecommunications and data communications services that leverage the benefits of a converged network. 2nd Century's one unified network is scalable and flexible, allowing customers to add additional value-added services, including advanced applications, for no additional capital expense. Our service offering allows the small and medium business segment to communicate like a Fortune 500 company."

2nd Century will offer dedicated, high-speed Internet access, email, Web hosting and local and long distance service to small and medium businesses. The company is currently beta testing its service in Tampa and will launch its fully integrated ATM solution later this year.

The agreement outlines the following rules under which 2nd Century and BellSouth will interconnect their networks:

-- 2nd Century can provide local service to customers throughout

BellSouth's service area. -- 2nd Century can access and interconnect with BellSouth's

facilities. -- Compensation between the two companies for traffic exchange will

be mutual and reciprocal. -- Customers who switch their local service to 2nd Century can keep

their current telephone number (Permanent number portability). -- Customers will receive "non-discriminatory" rates and charges. -- 2nd Century can purchase and resale separate, or unbundled,

portions of BellSouth's services for its customers.

The agreement will remain in effect through June 2001. 2nd Century is currently negotiating interconnection agreements with the major RBOCs and independent telephone companies and currently has an agreement with GTE Florida.

2nd Century received its Florida CLEC license in February and its Interexchange (IXC) license in March. The company has CLEC filings in multiple states and is certified by the FCC as a domestic and international long distance carrier.

2nd Century is a second-generation competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). The company will offer small- and medium-sized businesses telecommunications and data communications services along with advanced applications and services, dedicated high-speed Internet access, voicemail, e-mail, Web hosting and local and long distance phone services. Customers subscribing to 2nd Century's services will no longer need to rely on multiple vendors for their communications needs, allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to leverage the benefits and resources of a converged network, previously only available to large companies. A fall 1999 services launch is planned.

2nd Century Communications, a privately-held company, is headquartered in Tampa, Fla. and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.2c2.com.