BellSouth Announces Agreement With Expanets.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 9, 2000

Former Lucent Sales Group to offer BellSouth Products and Services

to their Small and Mid-Sized Business Customers

BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) today announced an agreement that will allow Expanets, the nations largest networked communications solutions provider for small and mid-sized businesses in the U.S., to promote and sell BellSouth products and services. The agreement will enable Expanets, which in March purchased the small and mid-sized business sales group from Lucent, to provide customers a comprehensive communications solution that includes Internet, voice, data and hardware-based products and services along with their consulting and technology expertise.

"This agreement with Expanets supports the overall BellSouth growth strategy by expanding our market coverage with more than 200 sales personnel in our nine state region, immediately growing our indirect distribution channels," said Estelle Conover, Vice President and General Manager of the BellSouth Distribution Organization. "Expanets is a highly skilled, professional sales organization whose existing portfolio is a perfect match with BellSouth's products and services, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to work with such an outstanding company."

The two companies will work together to provide customers end-to-end technology solutions that feature Lucent hardware-based systems and BellSouth network access and other services. The agreement will also enable BellSouth customers to take advantage of Expanents' national presence and fulfill their technology needs outside of BellSouth's nine-state region.

"This agreement with BellSouth provides Expanets with a critical strategic advantage as we seek to provide our customers with the best and most comprehensive bundle of communications and data services," said Chris Younger, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Marketing of Expanets. "In addition, BellSouth's unsurpassed reliability in providing voice, data and Internet access will be a powerful enhancement in providing faster, cost-effective and integrated solutions to our extensive customer base. This agreement is an excellent move for both companies."

Expanets is the nation's largest mid-market networked communications solutions provider with more than $1.4 billion in annualized revenues and a nationwide base of 750,000 customers with operations across the United States. Expanets was founded in February 1998 by NorthWestern Corporation (NYSE:NOR). Further information about Expanets is available on the Internet at http://www.expanets.com.

BellSouth is a $26 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications services, Internet, data and e-commerce applications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV, and online and directory advertising to more than 40 million customers in 18 countries worldwide.