AboveNet Purchases Land in Washington, D.C. Area With Plans to Build 250,000 Square Foot Co-Location Facility.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 1999--

AboveNet Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:ABOV), the architect of a global one-hop network that brings together high-bandwidth content sites, ISPs, and Application Service Providers in centralized co-location facilities, today announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase nine acres of land in the Washington, D.C. area.

The property, which is being purchased from Mason Hirst, a Virginia-based developer, is large enough for a 250,000 square foot Internet Service Exchange Facility (ISX) facility. It is located next to the Faraday Building in Reston, Va. Two weeks ago AboveNet announced that it had signed a 25,000 square feet lease for the entire Faraday Building.

"We are delighted to have acquired this prime piece of real estate," said Warren J. Kaplan, president and chief operating officer of AboveNet. "It will enable us to meet the demand we are experiencing on the East Coast and in Europe for our Internet Service Exchange."

"We are implementing our global strategy to build our world-class facilities, which are required to support the stringent requirements of our customers for superior Internet connectivity and co-location services," said Stephen Belomy, executive vice president for AboveNet.

AboveNet's ISX facilities serve as hubs for AboveNet's growing global presence, with the East Coast campus and its soon to be opened New York satellite serving U.S. and European clients, and the West Coast campus serving the U.S. and the Asia Pacific Region. These facilities are among the few Internet facilities in the world to receive the rigorous and prestigious ISO 9002 certification.

AboveNet's ISO 9002 Certification

ISO 9002 certification signifies that AboveNet, as well as its suppliers and technology partners, adhere to the quality management and quality assurance standards set by ISO -- a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from more than 130 countries. The certification is particularly important to the transmission of high bandwidth video and multimedia information for which delays and high error rates can result in transmission failures.

AboveNet's Global "One-Hop" Network

AboveNet's unique network model enables it to offer the best connectivity and network performance to its clients. At each of AboveNet's ISXs, content and service providers connect to each other in a LAN environment and then directly connect to the rest of the Internet through an extensive network of more than 256 private and public peering relationships, as announced at the end of March 1999, with all of the top ISPs and backbone providers worldwide.

This architecture reduces the multiple network hops packets of information often need to make to reach their final destination on the Internet, and allows AboveNet to keep the packets on its network intact until they can be delivered as close as possible to their final destination. The resulting "one-hop" network is highly redundant and reliable.

AboveNet further ensures the performance of its network by providing its clients access to 10.5 Gbps of bandwidth on demand -- the most bandwidth available at any co-location facility -- and it guarantees 100% headroom on its network so that its clients will have the bandwidth they need as they grow.

About Mason Hirst

Mason Hirst, developer of Lake Fairfax Business Center in Reston, was founded in 1921 by T. Mason Hirst, grandfather of current principal Thomson Hirst. Under the Mason Hirst umbrella are M&H Capital, which performs commercial development and brokerage, and the property management firm MH Management.

Descended from the family of George Mason, the Hirst family has a long history of public service in Virginia. Tom Hirst's father, Omer L. Hirst, served in the Virginia legislature for many years and played a major role in creating the Dulles Airport Access Road, Interstate Route 66, and the George Mason Law School; he also was active in mental health and civil rights issues.

About AboveNet Communications Inc.

AboveNet Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet connectivity and co-location solutions for high bandwidth and business-critical applications. AboveNet, headquartered in San Jose, is the architect of the Internet Service Exchange (ISX) -- a world class network that provides co-location services and Internet connectivity for Content Providers, ISPs, and Application Service Providers (ASPs).

The AboveNet Global One-Hop Network is designed to deliver fast, scalable and reliable connections to the Internet and improves the Internet experience for all end-users. With its Tier 1 status and ISO 9002 certification, AboveNet is seeking to serve the global community of the Internet. For more information on AboveNet and its service offering call 800/475-2733 or visit the company's Web site at http://www.above.net.

Note to Editors: AboveNet, Internet Service Exchange, ISX and AboveNet Global One-Hop Network are trademarks of AboveNet Communications, Inc. All other company or brand names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical, such as statements relating to the emergence of a market for hosted applications and the potential benefits of hosted applications, are forward looking statements within the meaning of section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding the company's expectations, beliefs, hopes, intention or strategies regarding the future. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks related to AboveNet's services, including network scalability and Internet connectivity, the ability to maintain and increase peering relationships, and intense competition, the ability of the providers of hosted application services to obtain and retain customers and satisfactory levels of service, and other factors and risks discussed in the company's registration statement on form S-1 initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 7, 1999 and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities Exchange Commission.