Acceris Communications Launches Local Bundled Product In Pennsylvania And Massachusetts.

News Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004

Acceris Communications Inc. (OTCBB:ACRS) continues to expand its offering of local dialtone services in the northeast. In addition to New York and New Jersey, Acceris is now providing local toll and long distance bundled service to residential and small business customers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Acceris currently has interconnection agreements accepted in 25 states and UNE-P regulatory approvals in nine states. In May, the Company will expand its services to Florida.

Acceris is using advanced OSS systems from Concretio to automate much of the provisioning process and the back office support. Automated provisioning will help Acceris efficiently handle the volume growth of local customers as it enters other states and allow the Company to focus its efforts on customer care. The Company has deployed a bundled product through all of its sales channels. Multi-level marketing agents, ethnic agents, commercial partners and outsourced telemarketing firms are all working to win new bundled customers and to upsell Acceris' installed base of 1+ and 1010-xxx customers.

Allan Silber, the Chairman and CEO of Acceris Communications commented, "We are pleased with how quickly we have primed ourselves for the local market. With our bundled product being offered through all of our sales channels, we are achieving approximately 2,500 gross adds per month and expect this to increase to over 7,000 gross adds per month by the end of the year."

Acceris offers a variety of affordable local plans for both residential and commercial customers, from packaged unlimited local-long distance to stand alone unlimited local calling with standard features. For more information on Acceris products and services, please visit Acceris' website at www.acceris.com.

Acceris Communications is a subsidiary of Counsel Corporation (NASDAQ:CXSN) (TSX:CXS).

About Acceris Communications

Acceris is a broad based communications company serving residential, small and medium-sized business and large enterprise customers in the United States. A facilities-based carrier, it provides a range of products including local dial tone and 1+ domestic and international long distance voice services, as well as fully managed and fully integrated data and enhanced services. Acceris offers its communications products and services both directly and through a network of independent agents, primarily via multi-level marketing and commercial agent programs. Acceris also offers a proven network convergence solution for voice and data in Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") communications technology and holds two foundational patents in the VoIP space. For further information, visit Acceris' website at www.acceris.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Exchange Act, as amended, and information relating to Acceris that are based on management's exercise of business judgment as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. When used in this document, the words "may," " will," " anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend" and words of similar import, are intended to identify any forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current view of future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as noted in our securities and other regulatory filings. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation and do not intend to update, revise or otherwise publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events. Although we believe that our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will materialize. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements.