Comdial appoints distributor for Argentina and Uruguay.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 1997--Comdial (NASDAQ/NMS:CMDL) announced today that it has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar distributor agreement with Buenos Aries-based Comdial Argentina, S.A., an independent distributor. Under terms of the agreement, Comdial Argentina, S.A. is authorized to sell Comdial's complete telecommunications product line in Argentina and Uruguay.

Initial market concentration will be on Impact, DXP, and DXP Plus digital switching products and selected computer-telephone integration software products. Sales will commence once technical approvals from the appropriate local authorities are complete. This process is well underway in Argentina, and should be complete within the next 60 days.

Comdial Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William G. Mustain, said "We have long targeted Argentina, Brazil, and Chile as strategic international markets for Comdial products. The economies in these countries are strong and growing. The telecommunications infrastructure is highly developed and technical standards are very similar to our own. With a successful distributor in Brazil, and now a highly qualified partner in Argentina, we are well on our way to successfully executing our South America strategy. We expect to announce a qualified distributor for Chile within the next few months."

Comdial Argentina, S.A. was formed by Mr. Luis M. Jasminoy and his partners for the express purpose of marketing Comdial products in Argentina and Uruguay. Mr. Jasminoy was formerly the principal owner of Ringer, S.A. - a highly successful Argentine distributor of telephone systems manufactured by Nortel, Inc.

Mr. Jasminoy said, "We are very pleased to represent Comdial in Argentina and Uruguay. Comdial products offer the advanced technology our customers demand and are competitively priced. I am confident that we will have very good success with Comdial, and that is why we have committed to sell only Comdial products." He added, "We see immediate applications for Comdial's QuickQ automatic call distributor and down the road we expect to sell a lot of computer telephony applications."

Comdial Corporation is a leading designer, manufacturer, and supplier of a broad range of advanced business communications products and systems solutions based on computer-telephone integration.

CONTACT: Comdial Corp.,

Dick Bucci, 804/978-2525