BBN PLANET WINS UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SYSTEM CONTRACT TO OFFER INTERNET ACCESS THROUGHOUT MARYLAND; BBN Planet Southeastern Region To Expand Service to Region With New Points of Presence in Baltimore and Arlington.

COLLEGE PARK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1995--BBN today announced that its BBN Planet subsidiary has received a contract from the University of Maryland System to provide high-speed Internet access for the 13 colleges, universities and research institutes within the University of Maryland System. In addition, many state and local government agencies in Maryland can "piggyback" on the contract to receive the same preferred pricing from BBN Planet Southeastern Region, based here.

"Since we began serving the Southeastern region nearly 10 years ago, we've been providing and supporting large government agencies and organizations with high-speed Internet access," said Jeffrey Balling, general manager of BBN Planet Southeastern Region. "This agreement with the University of Maryland System will allow its members and other organizations throughout the state to meet the Internet access needs of their constituents today and accommodate future demand for higher bandwidth applications such as video and the World Wide Web."

"Adequate access to the Internet is essential to achieve the academic and research missions of our institutions. In securing our own access at the most affordable price, we are pleased to be able to advance communications across Maryland," said Donald N. Langenberg, Chancellor of the University of Maryland System.

The alliance between BBN Planet and the University of Maryland System "provides a feeling of confidence for state agencies that the price and technical issues have been addressed," added Richard Rose, director of telecommunications systems and operations for the University of Maryland System.

Under the terms of the two-year, renewable contract, BBN Planet Southeastern Region will be providing a menu of Internet access and service offerings that cater to a range of customers, from users with modest needs to high-end research organizations. BBN Planet will provide Internet access to them through Switched Multimegabyte Data Service (SMDS) at speeds of T1 (1.54 Megabits per second) and higher. Smaller organizations needing access to the Internet have the ability to use dedicated circuits, frame relay or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). The low cost for ISDN (a higher-speed, dial-up access) makes it an ideal way for smaller organizations to get high bandwidth access at a reasonable cost.

Expanded Service to Region

BBN Planet Southeastern Region began as the regional SURAnet in 1986, and was acquired by BBN Planet Corporation earlier this year. The College Park office employs more than 40 people, and is overseeing BBN Planet's national expansion of its Internet access and value-added services in the region.

Next week, BBN Planet will continue its expansion by opening new points of presence (PoPs) in Baltimore and Arlington, Virginia. The two new PoPs initially will have 3 Megabits per second access directly to the Internet using SMDS technology, providing local Internet access for organizations in these areas.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, BBN Planet Corporation is a subsidiary of Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (NYSE:BBN), and is a leading provider of managed Internet access and value-added services for businesses and organizations. BBN Planet's Internet services include managed security services, around-the-clock network operations, end-to-end problem resolution, comprehensive problem tracking, backbone management, training and consulting and ongoing configuration management services. For its fiscal year ended June 30, 1994, BBN had revenue of $196 million.

CONTACT: Brenda Nichols

(For BBN Planet Corporation

URL:http://www.bbnplanet.com/)

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or

Judi Scioli

UMS Public Information

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