ACQUISITION TO EXPAND MID-CONTINENT MARKET PRESENCE.

BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 1996--

WOULD ADD INTERNET, CELLULAR, PAGING BUSINESS TO

NETWORK LONG DISTANCE

Network Long Distance, Inc. (NTWK) announced today it has signed a letter of intent which would result in its second acquisition of a Mid-Continent-based telecom concern in the past two months.

NTWK has entered into an agreement to acquire Universal Telecom Technologies, Inc. (UTT) of St. Louis, an inter-exchange carrier which provides primarily dedicated-access direct-dial (1+) and toll free (1-800, 1-888) services to small businesses and to associated affinity customers related to those commercial accounts.

In addition, UTT provides remote voice mail, paging, cellular services and Internet access to its customer base. UTT currently produces approximately $6 million in annualized long distance revenues, and has generated an average annualized growth rate in excess of 60% over the past year.

According to Michael M. Ross, President and Chief Executive Officer of NTWK, the UTT transaction takes on additional significance in that it follows closely on the heels of NTWK's recently announced intent to merge with United Wats, Inc., a Kansas City-based carrier generating more than $21 million per year in annualized revenues. Together with United Wats, NTWK's current annualized run-rate now exceeds $60 million in revenues per year.

"The fact is, with more than 85% of UTT's long distance volume currently originating from within Missouri and Illinois, this transaction would obviously fit in well with our United Wats merger in Kansas City," Ross said. "UTT's calling traffic also dovetails nicely with the traffic we purchased in our prior acquisitions from Network Services, Inc. and Value-Tel, Inc., which are based in the contiguous states of Oklahoma and Illinois, respectively.

"Indeed, the physical proximity of UTT to our previous mergers and acquisitions would help us to increase our market penetration and enhance our industry presence in the growing Mid-Continent region," Ross said. "Moreover, this transaction would further our long-held strategy of building concentrated bases of profitable calling traffic in specific geographic regions of the country -- thereby enabling us to achieve increased economies of scale."

Considering that NTWK has traditionally focused on the commercial (rather than residential) segment of the telecommunications market, additional synergies would be realized in that UTT's customer base is also comprised of more than 90% business accounts. In addition, this transaction would enable NTWK, in effect, to establish a new, centrally located, direct sales and customer service platform in the very heart of the continent.

Finally, through the planned integration of UTT into the NTWK infrastructure, this transaction would assist in NTWK's ongoing plan to de-emphasize the wholesale segment of its business mix, as this would enable NTWK to move a larger percentage of its company-wide volume from the wholesale category to the retail (or direct sales) category, where the company realizes substantially wider profit margins and enhanced operational controls.

Network Long Distance, Inc., founded in 1979 (five years prior to the breakup of the Bell System), is one of the nation's fastest-growing interexchange carriers offering both digital switch-based and switchless fiber optic services to commercial and residential customers, full service agents and other, smaller long distance companies. Common stock of Network Long Distance trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol "NTWK."

CONTACT: Network Long Distance, Baton Rouge

Louis J. Resweber, 504/377-2111 or 800/321-NTWK

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