Alcatel and VPS Communications Form Strategic Relationship To Create Major High-Speed Network in the Northeast.

Business/Technology Editors

SUPERCOMM 2000

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2000

Agreement Includes Alcatel's DWDM Solution and Network Services

VPS Communications Inc. (VPSC),a unit of Dominion (NYSE: D), the nation's largest fully integrated natural gas and electric company, and Alcatel (NYSE: ALA), the world leader in optical networking, have formed a strategic relationship to design, install and manage a major high-speed communication network in the eastern U.S. The network will greatly enhance VPSC's data and voice transport capabilities by incorporating new Alcatel equipment and services. Terms of the agreement are not available.

The relationship focuses on building a high-speed network for VPSC using Alcatel's long-haul Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical networking solution, which includes the Optinex(TM)1640 Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (OADM). Using the OC-48 capabilities of the Optinex 1640 OADM, each fiber-optic strand in the network will be able to carry, for example, more than five million voice circuits at a time. The agreement also calls for developing a migration path for future expansion to OC-192 and beyond.

"Alcatel's solution will enable VPSC to significantly expand our capacity to handle a variety of traffic and increase our ability to offer our customers enhanced broadband services," said Gregg Kamper, vice president-Telecommunications, VPSC.

"This contract is a major milestone for Alcatel's DWDM expansion in the U.S. It shows that we propose the most advanced and flexible solutions to help our customers offer new services while reducing costs at the same time," said Christian Reinaudo, president, Alcatel Optics. "The world leader in wet and dry DWDM systems, Alcatel also makes the difference by designing and providing a fully integrated network solution."

Alcatel's DWDM solution delivers 400 Gb/s and up to 80 channels of varied bandwidth over a single fiber optic span and supports all-optical rings, fostering economically-streamlined networks and a greater range of services. In addition, the reliability the 1640 OADM brings to networks significantly reduces network costs.

About VPSC

VPS Communications Inc. is an inter-exchange carrier and CLEC providing high bandwidth capacity, special access, local access, collocation and Internet access services to wholesale and large retail customers. VPSC is a subsidiary of Virginia Power, and both are part of Dominion, which provides natural gas and electricity to more than 4 million customers in five states. For more information, visit Dominion on the Internet at www.dom.com, or VPSC at www.vpsc.com.

About Alcatel

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.