BellSouth Lights Up Fastest, Most Sophisticated Internet Data Exchange in U.S.; `Mix' Secures South Florida as Internet `Gateway to the World'.

Business Editors

ATLANTA and MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001

Unique Multi-Location Design Ensures Unmatched Service and Provides

Formidable Defense Against Disruptions and Severe Weather Threats

BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) today announced that it is "lighting up" the BellSouth Multimedia Internet Exchange (BellSouth MIX)(SM) with the availability of the new Internet data exchange service in South Florida.

The BellSouth MIX (www.bellsouthmix.com) represents the most advanced optically-switched Network Access Point (NAP) in the country, and will greatly improve the transmission and exchange of Internet data between major Internet Service Providers (ISPs), backbone carriers and international access facilities located in the region. BellSouth's MIX provides a carrier-neutral foundation for a next generation Internet infrastructure supporting the bandwidth needs of Internet services companies and emerging broadband product offerings, and establishes a beachhead for Internet development.

The BellSouth MIX features a unique, wide area metropolitan network architecture comprised of four major access facilities located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. These multiple facilities will allow businesses to choose where they wish to locate instead of requiring them to select a location within close proximity to a single connection point. Some NAPs consist of only one central location requiring users to pay for costly back-hauling of data traffic to these facilities.

"We're taking the BellSouth MIX to our customers by giving businesses the option to establish Internet connectivity at any of four node locations," said Ralph de la Vega, BellSouth's president of Broadband and Internet Services. "This design makes it easier, more convenient and cost effective for them while at the same time spreading the economic impact of technology development throughout a three-county, metropolitan Miami area. We believe our approach will further the `Internet Coast' vision that we've all shared for South Florida, establishing a reliable and secure foundation for Internet growth and development today and well into the future."

"BellSouth has the most technologically advanced network in the world," added Bill Smith, Chief Technology Officer for BellSouth. "This is due in part to our early adoption of fiber technology and a dedication to creating a first-class fiber infrastructure. The BellSouth MIX is another example of this commitment. BellSouth is poised with the high-performance/high-bandwidth infrastructure and the know-how in leveraging it to be responsive to virtually all market developments and any customer requirements."

Four-Node Design Links Community to Internet; Provides Unmatched Stability, Reliability and Survivability

The BellSouth MIX is comprised of four major access facilities located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and interconnected with fiber optic cabling. The four access facilities, or network nodes, ensure that the BellSouth MIX offers providers and businesses unmatched stability, reliability and survivability with respect to Internet connectivity. The BellSouth MIX is built around a self-healing and fully redundant mesh of fiber optic technology provided by both BellSouth Telecommunications and FPL FiberNet. As a result of this route and carrier diversity, the BellSouth MIX can survive with only one of the four facilities in operation. Should a power failure occur, each site's back-up power generation capabilities would automatically take over. Nodes are strategically located and constructed to avoid the hazards of severe weather that occurs in this region.

The BellSouth MIX was built to help enhance services from area hosting, Application Service Provider (ASP) and co-locations businesses. Each access facility is housed in commercial locations where large concentrations of Internet-related and high-technology companies are based. This ensures easy and open access to the BellSouth MIX within the tri-county area.

The four nodes are located in the following facilities:

      --  LightSpeed Miami Center (formerly known as Beacon Tradeport)
        11500 NW 25th Street, Miami, Fla.

      --  Emergia Cable Landing Station
        6503 West Rogers Circle, Boca Raton, Fla.

      --  ImpSat Fiber Networks USA Colocation Teleport Facility
        2040 North Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors, Fla.

      --  TeleSource--Termination of Washington to Miami L-4 Route
        36 Northeast 2nd Street, Miami, Fla.

`Industry First' Optical Infrastructure Provides Performance at the Speed of Light

The BellSouth MIX is the first Internet exchange in the U.S. to use intelligent optical switching in its core network, providing lightning-fast data transmission (from DS-3 to OC-192), virtually unlimited bandwidth on demand, and customer-managed point-and-click provisioning of services. BellSouth has teamed with "architects of the Internet" Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR) to build a broadband optical switching network that can massively but gracefully scale and evolve in bandwidth and functionality as customers and partners need it. By using the sophisticated intelligence that optical switches bring to the public network, BellSouth has constructed a flexible, optical mesh architecture that will support the requirements of a robust, dynamic Internet economy.

The resulting benefits to service providers are many. On-demand provisioning of bandwidth in the optical core, for example:

          --  Allows customers to decide how to accommodate increased
            traffic on their networks

          --  Delivers new service models and revenue opportunities

          --  Allows faster provisioning times for high-speed services

          --  Provides the opportunity for bandwidth trading

Not only do optical switches give service providers the ability to manage their own service provisioning requirements, these switches also enable the provisioning of bandwidth in a matter of minutes and seconds vs. weeks or even months. The data traffic engineering and routing capabilities of intelligent optical switching will also provide automatic detection and provisioning of additional bandwidth in real-time, as it is required, virtually eliminating bandwidth constraints and routing inefficiencies.

"BellSouth has a long history of innovation in the area of customer service," noted Jeff Kiel, vice president and general manager of Sycamore's Core Switching Business Unit. "The BellSouth MIX is the industry's most innovative example of how incumbent carriers are capitalizing on intelligent optical networking solutions to meet the demands and service requirements of this dynamic, global Internet economy. With the combination of our intelligent optical switches, intelligent optical transport and network management systems, BellSouth is providing a highly scalable foundation for enhanced service delivery. The BellSouth MIX can quickly and flexibly provision the widest range of services while delivering unprecedented speed and performance to customers."

BellSouth MIX is Southeast `Gateway to World'

The BellSouth MIX is the first new major Internet exchange hub that supports public peering to open in the U.S. in the last six years, and is the only facility of its kind in the Southeast. The network infrastructure maximizes connectivity to major Internet Service Providers' points of presence (POPs) throughout South Florida and the U.S. in addition to international cable landings to Central and South America, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. As a result, the BellSouth MIX extends business opportunities based in the Southeast to the world, and brings the world closer to the Southeast.

"The development of fast, flexible and reliable international connectivity is a crucial element to enable the Internet in Latin America to move on to the next step and become a more significant tool for regional economic development," said Juan I. Fernandez, senior industry analyst/Latin America, Gartner Group. "This connectivity was first enhanced by the deployment of new high-capacity submarine cables serving the region. Now the construction of new high-powered NAPs like BellSouth's MIX provide an important element for developing and deploying advanced applications to take advantage of the new international capacity and move the Internet to the next stage."

"As the leading Internet media company targeting Latin Americans, Spanish and Portuguese speakers worldwide, the need for reliable, dependable high-speed connectivity is essential to our business," said Enrique Narciso, president of StarMedia Network. "The South Florida location of the BellSouth MIX makes this initiative important to us, as the transport of data into and out of the U.S. is a key component of our Internet portal strategy. The BellSouth MIX was one factor in our decision to establish a strategic relationship with BellSouth."

BellSouth and StarMedia (Nasdaq: STRM) (www.starmedia.com) announced an agreement last month to create the first multi-access Internet portal in Latin America. The joint effort between BellSouth and StarMedia will create groundbreaking co-branded multi-access portals throughout Latin America that will enable the 12 million cellular customers of BellSouth's Latin America affiliates to access personalized information from anywhere via their personal computers and cellular phones.

For more information on the BellSouth MIX and/or to order service, please visit http://www.bellsouthmix.com, send e-mail to [e-mail] or call toll-free at 1-866-554-6554.

About BellSouth Corporation

BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications services company headquartered in Atlanta, GA, serving more than 45 million customers in the United States and 16 other countries.

Consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, BellSouth provides a full array of broadband data and e-commerce solutions to business customers, including Web hosting and other Internet services. In the residential market, BellSouth offers DSL high-speed Internet access, advanced voice features and other services. BellSouth also provides online and directory advertising services, including BellSouth(R) RealPages(SM).com.

BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless company, which provides innovative wireless data and voice services.