GTE provides Outsourced E-mail to Small Businesses and Home Offices; GTE and Software.com Announce Partnership to Reduce IT Operating Costs for Internet Mail Communications.

IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 1999--

Small businesses now have an alternative to managing e-mail in-house with GTE Outsourced E-mail, an affordable and scalable hosted e-mail service offered by GTE Internet services, a part of GTE (NYSE: GTE), that can potentially decrease monthly e-mail operating costs by 20 percent.

Developed in partnership with Software.com (Nasdaq: SWCM), a leading developer of carrier-scale messaging infrastructure products for service providers, GTE Outsourced E-mail (http://www.gte.net/bizsuite) is available today nationwide. GTE Outsourced E-mail helps small businesses securely and affordably manage e-mail by eliminating investments in hardware and software needed to deploy and operate e-mail on a company's internal computer network.

"Software.com initially partnered with GTE to validate the concept of our managed messaging technology," said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO of Software.com. "During a two-month pilot, we migrated over 200 employees to GTE Outsourced E-mail. The service performed at such a high level of reliability and administrative ease that we decided to continue using the solution."

GTE Outsourced E-mail provides all of the robust capabilities of a complex enterprise messaging system for small- and mid-sized businesses. The service includes individual e-mail boxes, onsite ability to administer individual accounts, security options that guarantee private communications and enhanced customer support.

Organizations implementing GTE Outsourced E-mail undergo a simple migration phase in which the customer's internal e-mail network is re-directed to GTE managed servers. Therefore, customer e-mail correspondence is now routed to GTE's data center, rather than processed through an internal e-mail server. From this point, GTE maintains control over e-mail network management for the customers, as well as the e-mail system software, based on Software.com's InterMail 4.0(R), a high-performance messaging server that scales to support millions of users with 24 x 7 availability.

"Small businesses can now choose the right e-mail solution that is affordable, scalable and responsive to their changing needs," said Alex Coleman, vice president and general manager of GTE Internet Services. "GTE prides itself on delivering the best Internet services, and through our system management and 24 x 7 network monitoring, GTE provides network reliability and security that customers can depend on."

Benefits of GTE Outsourced E-mail service include:

- Right-Sized Service. GTE Outsourced E-mail offers a variety of

e-mail packages that can be tailored to a customer's requirements

per number of mailboxes, type of access and storage quotas. This

gives customers the flexibility to choose a level that meets

their current needs, while allowing them to migrate easily to

other solutions as their needs change.

- Cost Savings. GTE Outsourced E-mail maintains all the necessary

mail server hardware and connections, as well as e-mail system

software, based on Software.com's Intermail 4.0, a

high-performance messaging server that scales to support millions

of users with high availability. With GTE Outsourced E-mail, the

responsibility for hardware and server operation and maintenance

are managed by GTE, while the hosted company retains full

administrative control over creating, changing or deleting

individual mail accounts and setting passwords and other

administrative functions -- just as if the messaging service were

being maintained in-house.

- Security. Recognizing the critical need for guaranteed security

in its customers' business communications, GTE Outsourced E-mail

employs the most advanced technology to ensure the

confidentiality of each hosted mail system. Secure Socket Layer

(SSL) protection is available for confidential SMTP, POP and IMAP 

mail operations. In addition, Virtual Private Network (VPN)

arrangements, such as encrypted tunneling, can be set up to

ensure additional levels of security. Customers have the added

confidence of knowing that GTE expert security personnel

continuously monitor and support this service 24 hours a day,

seven days a week.

- Rapid Response. The scalable system architecture enables GTE to

instantly provide additional mailboxes and capabilities as a

customer's business grows.

- Transparent Operation. Customers have day-to-day control over the

administration of their own e-mail accounts, aliases, vacation

messages and passwords, exactly as if the e-mail server were

physically on premise. However, GTE manages the underlying e-mail

infrastructure transparently, ensuring the highest level of

reliability, availability and quality of service and support.

- Increased Availability. GTE's 24 x 7 service offers more

availability than in-house alternatives, guaranteed with service

level agreements.

- Automatic Upgrades. GTE maintains continuous upgrades to the

e-mail management system with the latest software releases.

- Vanity Domains. Domain Name Mail allows businesses to incorporate

their names into more prestigious e-mail domains (e.g., Acme

Widgets becomes Acme.com).

- Open Standards. GTE Outsourced E-mail supports all major e-mail

standards for client access and operations, including SMTP, MIME,

POP3, IMAP4, ESMTP and SSL, providing easy integration and

flexibility.

In addition to GTE Outsourced E-mail, GTE offers a wide range of Internet connectivity options that include dial-up to dedicated Internet access. These services are complemented by a broad product line of IP services which includes high-performance Web hosting, virtual private networks (VPNs), managed Internet security, network management, systems integration and Web-based application development for integrating the Internet into business operations.

Customers can order GTE Outsourced E-mail by calling 1-888-GTE-4111.

About Software.com

Founded in 1993, and with over 38 million mailboxes licensed, Software.com is a leader in carrier-scale software solutions for service providers. Customers include many of the largest service providers worldwide, such as: @Home Network, AT&T WorldNet(R) Service, Excite Inc., GTE.net, Ameritech.net, PSINet, BellSouth.net, Bell Atlantic Internet Services, Virgin.net/U.K., Telepac/Portugal, KDD Communications, Hongkong Telecom, Telekom Malaysia, Pacific Internet, and others. With headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif. and Lexington, Mass., the company has offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Software.com can be reached in the U.S. at 805-882-2470 or www.software.com.

About GTE's Internet services

GTE's Internet service to consumers and small business was launched in 1996. With more than 700 local points of presence nation-wide, its subscriber base has grown from 70,000 to over 850,000 residential and small business subscribers. The increase was driven by GTE's continued success in bundling consumer Internet access with other communications services, as well as the company's success in leveraging distribution relationships with computer manufacturers such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard Company, Dell Computer, Sony Electronics Inc., Acer and Recompute.

About GTE

With 1998 revenues of more than $25 billion, GTE is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and a leading provider of integrated telecommunications services. In the United States, GTE provides local service in 28 states and wireless service in 17 states; nationwide long-distance and internetworking services ranging from dial-up Internet access for residential and small-business consumers to Web-based applications for Fortune 500 companies, as well as video service in selected markets. Outside the United States, the company serves nearly 9 million telecommunications customers. More information about GTE can be found at http://www.gte.com.