Florida Digital Network Selects DiscoveryCom's LoopMaster Total Loop Management Solution to Automate Deployment and Maintenance of DSL Services.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2000

DiscoveryCom, a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of telecommunications products for next generation communication networks, announces that Florida Digital Network (FDN) will implement DiscoveryCom's LoopMaster(TM) as the local loop management platform for its broadband DSL services. Florida Digital Network, an Elantic Communications company, is a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), providing local, long distance, and Internet service throughout the state of Florida.

FDN offers its customers a dependable and cost-effective alternative for meeting all their communications needs, no matter what level of service or number of lines they require. One of about 300 CLECs operating in Florida, FDN is a new breed of telephone company competing with larger, long-established local service companies that offers voice communications and high-speed Internet access in a single, itemized monthly statement. Capitalizing on the widespread popularity of the Internet and the need for high-speed access, while at the same time offering traditional telephone service, FDN is planning a merger with two other CLECs that will bring together an extensive network of communications products and services to customers from Maine to Florida. Cavalier Telephone, Conversent Communications, and Florida Digital Network will become Elantic Communications, Inc., one of the largest and fastest growing Integrated Communications Providers (ICP). Upon completion of the merger, Elantic will service more than 67,000 local access lines, with over 1,500 miles of fiber, eight state-of-the-art switches, and 140 collocations in 16 markets on the eastern seaboard. Elantic expects to expand into 19 additional markets, and by year end to have 14 installed switches with equipment in 417 collocations, and will service an addressable market of nearly 25 million business and residential customers. The merger is expected to become final in mid August 2000, pending regulatory approval.

"To successfully meet the challenge of our anticipated rapid expansion, we need an efficient and cost effective way to provision and maintain our customers' services," said Craig Schanley of Florida Digital Network. "We believe the LoopMaster, with its true end-to-end testing capabilities, is the state-of-the-art solution that will give us the competitive edge we are looking for."

From preservice line qualification to in-service performance monitoring, the LoopMaster system enables the service provider to manage every aspect of the local loop infrastructure. LoopMaster is compatible with all services, from POTS, ISDN, and T1 to all flavors of DSL, and is compatible with all access equipment vendors. The LoopMaster CO equipment, collocated with the DSLAM in the central office, allows the service provider to remotely access and test any loop as if they were on-site connecting test instruments onto the wire pairs at the distribution frame. In addition to extensive testing, the LoopMaster system enables remote cross-connects of the copper wire pairs between the MDF and access equipment.

"DiscoveryCom is excited to be part of FDN's DSL deployment strategy," said Marty Roberson, DiscoveryCom's President and CEO. "Broadband DSL services are the future of communications, and DiscoveryCom is destined to be a very large part of that future."

About Florida Digital Network

Florida Digital Network (FDN) is a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) headquartered in Orlando, Florida. A full-service telephone company, FDN provides local and long distance service, and the latest in advanced telecommunications products, including high-speed (DSL) Internet access, to businesses throughout the state of Florida. FDN is helping companies better communicate in a state of growth by providing superior telecommunications service at a lower rate. Privately owned, FDN is well capitalized, having previously raised equity funding from M/C Venture Partners, Clark McLeod (founder and current Chairman of McLeod USA), Richard Kolsby (founder of Intermedia Communications), and GATX Telecom Investors I, among other investors. For more information on Florida Digital Network, call toll free 877/CALL-FDN (877/225-5336) or log onto the Web site at www.FLORIDADIGITAL.net.

About Elantic Communications, Inc.

Elantic Communications, Inc. is a Super-Regional Integrated Communications Provider of voice and data services, created by the planned merger of Cavalier Telephone, Conversent Communications, and Florida Digital Network. One of the largest mergers in CLEC industry history, Elantic's 800 employees will service more than 67,000 local access lines with over 1,500 miles of fiber, 8 state-of-the-art switches, and 140 collocations in 16 markets on the eastern seaboard. By year's end, a staff of over 1,400 will service an additional 19 markets with a total of 14 switches and 417 collocations. With a continued commitment to localized customer sales and service, Elantic will offer competitive, cost-effective, and dependable communications alternatives to thousands of new business, government, and residential customers each week. The merger is expected to become final in August 2000, pending regulatory approval. For more information, visit www.elantic.com/new.

About DiscoveryCom

Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, DiscoveryCom is a technology company involved in the design, manufacture, and distribution of communications products that enable service providers to rapidly install and maintain broadband DSL services. Founded in 1995, the company launched a successful line of portable broadband test instruments that are distributed worldwide and used by major telephone companies and service providers in more than 21 countries. Building on that success, DiscoveryCom's new LoopMaster product line automates the qualification, provisioning, and management of local copper telephone circuits used to deliver broadband DSL services to subscribers.