Esprit Telecom Extends Its European Infrastructure.

READING, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24 1998--Esprit Telecom Group plc (Nasdaq: ESPRY; Easdaq: ESPR), one of Europe's leading independent telecommunications companies, today announced that it is extending its high capacity digital fibre optic telecommunications network through Belgium.

This morning, the Company signed a long term lease agreement with Belgian railway company Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen BV (NMBS) to use the national rail operator's basic fibre optic facilities, or "dark fibre," for the network extension. Esprit Telecom will then "light up" the network electronically using its own state of the art SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission equipment.

"The addition of Belgium is a key milestone in the development of our pan-European SDH ring network. The deal with NMBS, a long lease that gives us effective ownership for the natural life of the cable, will allow us to significantly reduce our transmission costs and increase the quality of our services in the medium term. As well as carrying our own traffic, it will allow us to sell managed bandwidth services to our customers and other carriers," said David L. Oertle, chief executive at Esprit Telecom Group plc.

Esprit Telecom will soon become the first independent telecommunications company in Belgium licensed to sell voice services nationwide and interconnect its network with Belgacom. The Belgian portion of the ring network will provide the backbone for Esprit Telecom's Belgian services.

In December 1997, Esprit Telecom raised $300 million in a dual currency senior note offering in Europe and the United States and announced plans to significantly expand its digital fibre optic network across Europe. The first phase in this expansion, a high capacity, fully digital fibre optic link between London and Paris, began in November 1997. That network is now being extended through France and Belgian. Ultimately, the fully resilient SDH ring network will connect the UK, France, The Netherlands, and Belgium.

The Belgian network will run nearly 200km from the French border through Brussels and Antwerp to the Dutch border. Capacity will be STM-16, or 2.5Gb/second initially.

Esprit Telecom Group plc, a NASDAQ and EASDAQ quoted company, trading under the symbols "ESPRY" and "ESPR" respectively, is one of the largest independent European telecommunications service providers. Its network extends to 19 major cities in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Ireland. The company provides high quality, low cost, and customised international and national long distance telecommunications services to large and medium-sized businesses. As a market leader in providing international telecommunications services, Esprit Telecom counts leading financial institutions, hotels, travel service organisations, transport companies, and government organisations amongst its many customers.

Further information about Esprit Telecom is also available on the Internet at: http://www.esprittele.com

CONTACT: Esprit Telecom Group plc

Glenn Manoff, 44 (0) 118-951-4010

http://www.esprittele.com