ACCESSLINE TECHNOLOGIES AWARDED MORE PATENT PROTECTION.

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 3, 1997--AccessLine Technologies announced today that it has been awarded two additional patents in the United States protecting key features of its AccessLine System(R) personal number services technology.

AccessLine is the pioneer of the personal number industry and the originator of the phrases, One Person, One Number(R) and The Phone Number Assigned To People, Not Places(R). AccessLine now has four patents in the United States, one in Australia and approximately 30 pending applications around the world. Most of these patents relate to technology conceived and originally developed in the early 1980s.

AccessLine was founded by Bob Fuller and Fred Epler in 1983. Fuller and Epler have been involved in the cellular industry since its infancy, and were part of the team at U.S. Communications that developed the first commercial call processing logic for cellular telephones under contract to E.F. Johnson Co. and Bell Laboratories. A patent was issued to Fuller and Epler as a result of their work in this area.

At AccessLine, the two inventors conceived technology that would allow any person with a phone number to use that phone number as a "gateway" to all communications, wired or wireless. Soon after AccessLine Technologies was formed, Fuller and Epler built the first device implementing this technology.

It was a single port, single microprocessor device which controlled a switch, providing users with an electronic "gatekeeper" to screen calls, forward calls, take messages, or page the user, and also allowed the user to dial in and make sequential outbound calls from the device using speed dial codes. This coordinating device enabled users to take full advantage of various communications devices without the confusion of many phone numbers, and without the limitations of any particular communications device or location. AccessLine's patents are based on this technology and these functions.

The personal number services market has grown considerably during the last few years and as a significant trend it has entered the perspective of some of the industry's leading analysts. In one study, Business Research Group found that 77% of business professionals are interested in subscribing to personal number service. In another, The Yankee Group found that 42% of consumers and 58% of cellular users are interested in subscribing to it.

The Yankee Group defines personal number service as "a communications service that brings together multiple synchronous and asynchronous communications through one access point. It integrates heterogeneous communications networks (voice and data, fixed and wireless) and delivers them through some sort of gateway." (Personal Number Services: Emergence of the Software-Defined Wireless Network, The Yankee Group, October 1996).

Due to intense competition in the wireless industry and growing demand of consumers for personal number products, the number of services providers and vendors developing or marketing personal number services has multiplied. Many of these products are based on the same principles that Bob Fuller and Fred Epler conceived many years ago.

"We have now been awarded or allowed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) many of the patents which we believe define personal number services," said Brian McManus, AccessLine's senior vice president of business development. "Even though these patents provide us the right to exclude others from the market who wish to provide the many features of personal number service that are covered by our patents, we are in the process of offering reasonable licenses," added McManus. "We feel this strategy will benefit the industry, consumers, and AccessLine, as it will stimulate the widespread use of this important technology."

Overview of Existing AccessLine Patents

Branch Routing Patents -- Patent Nos. 4,893,335; 5,375,161

These patents cover "branch routing," which is a combination of automated attendant and call forwarding. One important feature of this technology allows a caller to select from a menu of options for communicating with a user, for example, enabling a caller to select to be forwarded to the user, or send the user a voice mail message, a fax or a page. AccessLine believes that branch routing is important for users who desire a full-featured personal number service. These patents have previously been licensed in the United States.

Monitoring Patent -- Patent No. 5,588,037

The monitoring patent was recently issued by the PTO in December 1996, and covers technology that allows a platform to monitor a call in progress and pull the call back to the platform to perform additional call processing. This technology has a wide variety of applications, some of which are not readily associated with personal number service.

For example, this monitoring capability permits enhanced calling card services, permitting repeat outbound calling with speed dial lists or information services, and enhanced voicemail services, permitting a voicemail user to listen to a voice mail message, have the system automatically redial the caller, and, at the conclusion of that outbound call, have the system return the user to the user's next voice mail message.

In AccessLine's product, this enhanced voicemail service is referred to Instant-Call-Back and Rebound(R). AccessLine believes that this patent also has broad application to personal assistant technology.

Scheduling Patent -- Patent No. 5,610,970

This patent will be officially granted by the PTO on March 11, 1997, and covers many types of call processing features based on a time schedule. Personal number service subscribers usually desire to have the system handle the calls in a specific way based on the time of day or day of week, for example, screening calls when they are at home or on a cellular phone. This patent covers this functionality. A similar patent has been licensed in Australia to Ericsson Telecom AB.

AccessLine also has many additional patents pending in the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Patent Office, Japan, and Singapore, covering technology initially conceived by Fuller and Epler.

About AccessLine Technologies

AccessLine services are currently available in approximately 35 markets worldwide through some of the world's largest telecommunications companies including GTE TSI, AirTouch Cellular, Ameritech Cellular, Bell Atlantic Mobile, BC TEL Mobility, Bell Canada, Bell Mobility, AGT Mobility, Telia (Sweden), NetCom GSM (Norway), One Number Service, Inc. (Japan), Hyosung One Number Co. (Korea), PTT Telecom (Netherlands), SingTel Paging (Singapore) and others. AccessLine services are distributed through agreements with Saritel S.p.A., Octel Communications, and Stratus Computer.

Notes to editors:

This press release contains summary information of the AccessLine patents, and this summary information should not be relied upon or interpreted in any fashion other than as a brief, general description of some of the technology described in the AccessLine patents. For a full understanding of the coverage of the patents, a thorough review of each patent is necessary.

AccessLine(R), AccessLine System(R), One Person, One Number(R), Rebound(R), and The Phone Number Assigned to People, Not Places(R) are registered service marks of AccessLine Technologies, Inc. or its subsidiaries in various jurisdictions. All other trademarks or service marks referred to in this document are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: AccessLine

Kimberly Tassin

206/654-1001

[e-mail]