Acceris Communications Local Service Expands to Florida.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2004

Acceris Communications Inc. (OTCBB:ACRS) today announced it has entered the residential local phone market in Florida. The expansion means that consumers in Florida now have the option of taking advantage of Acceris' local plans, in addition to its competitively priced long distance plans for an attractive bundled communications package.

Allan Silber, the Chairman and CEO of Acceris Communications commented, "With interconnection agreements accepted in 25 states, UNE-P regulatory approvals in nine states, and our local-long distance bundled product offered in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and now Florida, we are extremely pleased with the progress that we've made in entering the local market and growing our customer base."

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) www.counselcorp.com.

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.