GST Tucson Lightwave Inc. and Tucson Electric Power Company Inc. sign agreement.

VANCOUVER, Washington--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1996--GST Tucson Lightwave Inc. (GST) has entered into an agreement with Tucson Electric Power Company Inc. (TEP) for use of its available facilities -- including conduit, towers and poles -- to deploy GST's fiber optic telecommunications network.

TEP will use GST's network to gain communications capacity to be used for enhancing its energy products and services.

Earl Kamsky, president of GST Tucson Lightwave Inc.'s parent company, GST Telecom Inc., said the facilities agreement will "significantly increase the speed with which the company can make its services available to Tucson businesses."

GST Tucson Lightwave Inc. is a full service telecommunications provider offering integrated advanced voice, data and video transmission's.

These include point-to-point and point-to-multi-point connectivity between local area and wide area networks, disaster recovery capabilities and private network services with transmission speeds to up to 45 million bits per second. The company also expects to be offering switched services and shared tenant services by mid-year.

"Thanks to the agreement with the people the Tucson Electric Power Company, the business community will be in a position to benefit from the advantages of our high-speed, all-digital fiber network much sooner than if we would have had to use alternative ways to run our fiber," Kamsky said.

GST Tucson Lightwave, Inc. was granted a license by the mayor and City Council in July 1994, to build and operate a network that initially will be 26 miles long. Phase one of the build-out is eight miles long, carrying telecommunications traffic between downtown businesses and long distance carriers.

This network became operational in October, 1995. Phase two, to be completed by the third calender quarter 1996 will be 18 route miles long and will complete the ring around the City of Tucson. A third phase of 75 route miles is also planned in order to extend the network throughout the Tucson metropolitan area.

GST Telecommunications Inc. currently operate networks in fourteen cities in the Western United States and Hawaii, with an additional six cities under construction in the San Francisco Bay area.

The company provides a broad range of integrated telecommunications products and services, through the development and operation of competitive access and other telecommunications networks.

GST's primary focus is customers located in Tier II and Tier III markets in the Western United States and Hawaii. In addition, the Company manufactures telecommunication switching equipment and provides network management and billing systems through its wholly owned subsidiary National Applied Computer Technologies Inc. of Orem, Utah.

CONTACT: GST Telecommunications, Inc.

Rob Blankstein, 800/667-4366 or 604/688-0553 or

John Warta, 360/254-4700