Covista Communications, Inc. Reactivates New York City Switching Facility; Provides Emergency Telecommunications Services to Aid Lower Manhattan Relief Efforts.

Business Editors

LITTLE FALLS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2001

Covista Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVST) announced today that it has reactivated its New York City switching facility that had been temporarily disabled when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11.

With the implementation of a completely reconstructed electric power grid by the local utility provider, full electric power has been restored to the area, and service is being restored to all Covista customers who had experienced

outages during the last two weeks.

John Leach, Covista's President and Chief Executive Officer, praised the efforts of all those who had helped to bring the facility back to full operation. "This has been a remarkable partnership in the face of unimaginably difficult circumstances. The technical support staff at Alcatel who manufactured and installed our switch, the building management, the City of New York, which also is a major tenant in the building, the power company, and our own engineering and operations staff have worked tirelessly together. While we still are experiencing the loss of certain facilities operated by other carriers with whom we interconnect, we anticipate that most of our customers who have been affected by this outage will be turned back up within the next 24 hours, and we are looking forward to the early restoration of full service for everyone in the region."

Covista also announced that it has been providing emergency telecommunications services to the Business Improvement District which services the World Trade Center area, commonly known as the Downtown Alliance. Mr. Leach added, "We were able to take advantage of the fact that our facilities are in the same building, to run a direct cable connection from our switch to their offices. We are gratified to be able to assist the ongoing relief effort by providing essential services under circumstances in which they would not otherwise have been available."

About Covista:

Covista is a facilities-based long distance telecommunications, Internet and data services provider with a substantial customer base in both the commercial and wholesale market segments. Its products and services include a broad range of voice, data and Internet solutions, including long distance and toll-free services, calling card, frame relay, Internet access, VPN, directory assistance and teleconferencing services. The wholesale division provides domestic and international termination services to carriers worldwide at competitive rates. Covista currently owns and operates switches in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, and previously has announced plans to expand to additional switch sites in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Chattanooga, as well as to open a 200-seat call center in Chattanooga. An additional switch site in the Philadelphia area is expected to be added when the previously-announced acquisition of Capsule Communications is completed. The Company previously announced that it has acquired access to nation-wide network facilities comprising 2,822,400,000 DS-0 channel miles of telecommunications capacity. Covista operates a Network Operations Center in Northern New Jersey to monitor its switched network and to coordinate its various services. Covista processes approximately 95% of all its call volume through its own facilities. For information on becoming a Covista customer, please telephone [phone] or visit the Company's website at www.covista.com.

Information Relating to Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains historical and forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements such as statements of the Company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions involve risks and uncertainties. The cautionary statements made in this release should be read as being applicable to all related statements wherever they appear. Statements containing terms such as "believes," "expects," "plans," "projects," "intends," "estimates," "anticipates," or similar terms, are considered to contain uncertainty and are forward-looking statements. The actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could contribute to such differences include: changes in market conditions and increased competition from other telecommunications and Internet service providers; government regulations; the volatile and competitive environment for Internet telephony; advances in competitive products or technologies that could reduce demand for services; availability of transmission facilities; management of rapid growth; customer concentration and attrition; the ability to successfully integrate acquired companies; the ability to successfully develop and bring new services to market; and other risks discussed in the company's SEC filings, including Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which can be accessed at the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov.

Readers of this release should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such risk factors. Consequently, this list should not be considered a complete statement of all potential risks or uncertainties. Covista does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as is required by applicable law.