Esprit Telecom Opens North of England Office.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 1999--Esprit Telecom UK (Nasdaq: ESPRY) (Easdaq: ESPR), one of Europe's leading independent telecommunications companies, is pleased to announce the opening of its North of England office. Based in the Birchwood Genesis Centre, Warrington, the office serves Esprit Telecom's business clients throughout the North of England.

Esprit Telecom has been building up a presence in the region since October 1998. The company's high quality and customer service combined with competitive pricing has already proved attractive to businesses in the region such as: Servisair UK Ltd., Uno Stores, World of Leather and Chesterfield Plastics Ltd.

Bob Muir, Esprit Telecom's Business Manager for the North of England, said: "I am delighted to announce the opening of our new office. We have a highly skilled team of eleven account managers, which has already developed an in-depth understanding of local businesses' telecoms requirements. We look forward to developing our client base in the coming months."

Esprit Telecom's North of England region takes in an area from Liverpool in the west to Hull and Newcastle in the east. On the north/south axis, the region extends from Stoke-on-Trent to the Borders. Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Warrington are all covered by the Esprit Telecom team from the North of England office.

To meet customer needs, Esprit Telecom has built a dispersed account management team co-ordinated from the North of England base. This enables the individual account managers to telework from remote locations - using Esprit Telecom's state-of-the-art technology - and focus on better understanding the particular needs of businesses in their specific local area.

Muir has 18 year's experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Esprit Telecom, he was General Sales Manager with Telewest Business Services, managing the company's North West sales team.

About Esprit Telecom

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 providers. Established in 1992, the company has sales offices and network points of presence in more than 30 major cities in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium, and Italy generating a run rate of over one billion minutes of telecommunications traffic per year. Esprit Telecom Networks Limited, an independent operations subsidiary of Esprit Telecom, is currently building a 9,000 route kilometre fibre optic network through six European countries using state of the art Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technologies.

Esprit Telecom UK was commended in the Communications Awards 1998 for its customer service. The company also performed well in OFTEL's Comparable Performance Indicators (CPI) Report. The regulator's statistics demonstrated Esprit Telecom's good record in service provision and fault repair.

Esprit Telecom Products and Services

Esprit Telecom's on-going product development programme responds to its customers' current and future communications needs. Significant investment in research and development has resulted in the most flexible and resilient pan-European network available. Esprit Telecom's `Elite' range of products and services includes a number of billing options (including analysis software which generates reports and call profiles), the facility to offer national and international freephone services, pre-paid and post-paid calling card products, virtual private networks, ISDN and private circuits.

For further press information, please contact: Elizabeth Combs Esprit Telecom UK Ltd. Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

Further customer information on Esprit Telecom's products and services can be obtained by calling 0800 634 9991.

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