AIRNET IS AWARDED PCS EQUIPMENT CONTRACT FROM C-BLOCK WINNER SOUTHEAST TELEPHONE.

MELBOURNE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 1996--AirNet Communications Corporation announced today that it has signed a purchase agreement to supply PCS (Personal Communication Systems) wireless infrastructure equipment and services to SouthEast Telephone Ltd. of Pikeville, Kentucky, a newly established company who successfully bid in the FCC's recent PCS C-block auction.

SouthEast Telephone has obtained the license to provide PCS service in six Basic Trading Areas (BTAs) in Kentucky, namely: Bowling Green-Glasgow, Madisonville, Owensboro, Paducah-Murray-Mayfield, Somerset, and Williamson/WV-Pikeville. The six BTAs have a total population of nearly one million. The system deployment will start in the first quarter of 1997 in the Williamson/WV-Pikeville BTA and will continue in the other five BTAs immediately after.

"We have been very diligent in looking for a workable air interface system to be deployed in our Kentucky markets," said Darrell Maynard, president of SouthEast Telephone. "After researching several vendors and technologies, we felt that AirNet's technology will keep our 'backhaul' spending to a minimum. To us, this was a very important criterion in our decision."

SouthEast Telephone has opted for the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)-based technology for its PCS-1900 network, whose initial operational capacity is planned to serve 80,000 to 100,000 subscribers in the total geographic area of the six BTAs.

"The AirNet products and technology will strategically position SouthEast Telephone to successfully accomplish its goal of providing world-class PCS services to its subscribers today and the years to come," stated Alex Dade, SouthEast Telephone's vice president.

Under the terms of the agreement, consisting of a five-year deployment plan valued at more than $20 million, AirNet will supply and install a full turnkey GSM-based PCS-1900 base station system, including the ARE-1000 (AirNet Range Extender). Twelve ARE-1000s can extend the range of a single AirNet Broadband Transceiver System (BTS) up to 1000 square miles.

"We are very excited by the opportunity to work with and serve SouthEast Telephone," said Bernard R. Smedley, president and chief executive officer of AirNet Communications. "Our unique advanced all-digital broadband wireless technology will provide a very cost-effective, high coverage and flexible solution for its PCS market entry."

"The SouthEast Telephone application plans fit perfectly with AirNet's product portfolio," said Glen Ehley, PCS director of AirNet Communications. "Its network has high capacity as well as coverage requirements which are met fully by AirNet's system solution."

SouthEast Telephone, Ltd. is a Kentucky-based company whose strategies include providing feature-rich wireless and wireline services to the rural marketplace. The management team of SouthEast Telephone has many years of experience in computer and telephone interconnectivity. Additionally, this team brings expertise from selling and marketing telecommunications network services of other major service providers.

AirNet Communications Corporation, based in Melbourne, Florida, designs, manufactures, distributes and supports wireless broadband infrastructure products including high-capacity, software-based, protocol-independent base stations. AirNet offers cost-effective, flexible products and services for the wireless communications industry, including analog and digital cellular, personal communications services (PCS) and wireless local loop networks. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: AirNet is a trademark of AirNet Communications Corporation. Other names are registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies or organizations.

CONTACT: AirNet Communications

Kathleen M. Magee, [phone]

or

SouthEast Telephone Ltd.

Barbara Smith, [phone]

or

MarSalvaCom

Mario Salvadori, +1.847.255.8033