Telcordia Technologies Announces New Customers for Telcordia -TM- Network Engineer.

MORRISTOWN, NJ--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 27, 1999--

ESRI User Conference Booth No. 843

First customers announced since acquisition of MESA Solutions

-- Rock Hill Telephone Company --

-- Frankfort Plant Board --

Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (formerly Bellcore) and subsidiary MESA Solutions Inc., today announced that two communications service providers - Rock Hill Telephone Company of Rock Hill, South Carolina and the Frankfort Plant Board of Frankfort, Kentucky, have selected the award-winning Telcordia(TM) Network Engineer product, as the Geographic Information System (GIS) engineering and mapping tool designed for planning, building, and maintaining their communications networks.

Telcordia (TM) Network Engineer, built on the industry-leading GIS platform of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) is a design, documentation, and network maintenance software application that provides the capability to inventory a full array of hybrid fiber coax (HFC), copper and fiber network plant equipment, and the supporting structure data to interactively build a connected network. An invaluable tool for facilities-based network providers, the software allows users to create customized maps embedded with intelligence, to document network facilities such as fiber cables, to quickly solve complex geographical problems, to trace connectivity between network points, and to manage network inventory.

Rock Hill and Frankfort Plant Board, are the first customers to purchase Network Engineer since Telcordia announced its recent acquisition of MESA Solutions, the co-developer of Network Engineer. Besides Network Engineer's state-of-the-art capabilities, these organizations will benefit from the support of industry-leading systems integration and consulting services provided by Telcordia and MESA Solutions, and the companies' ongoing strategic alliance with ESRI. In addition, Network Engineer was part of the recently announced Telcordia Telkom South Africa contact designed to upgrade Telkom's network infrastructure.

"Telcordia continues to work closely with MESA Solutions and ESRI to aggressively market our Network Engineer product in response to strong demand," said Dave Leonard, vice president and general manager, Network Design, of Telcordia Technologies. "We remain focused on establishing new relationships and providing our customers with a high quality, affordable product to suit their specific network engineering and planning needs."

The fully scaleable, client-server application, based on a "single desktop/laptop" architecture provides access to data in a format comfortable for all Microsoft (R) Windows users. Its automated capabilities help to save personnel costs and avoid excess inventory usage, data capture errors and re-engineering costs. This system helps communications companies get networks up and running quickly and dramatically reduces the time to market for new service offerings.

Rock Hill is a large U.S. local exchange carrier. Located in Rock Hill, South Carolina, it provides service to 50,000 subscribers over 105,000 access lines. Rock Hill chose Network Engineer as a solution for modeling its fiber, copper, and HFC network.

"We were impressed with the simplicity and layout of the rules base data structure of Network Engineer," said Worth Sparks, ESS Programmer Analyst at Rock Hill. "It is obvious that the joint capabilities of Telcordia and MESA offer a high-quality product in addition to a superior knowledge of the operations and facilities needed to model our network," Sparks continued. The Frankfort Plant Board of Frankfort, Kentucky has provided electric and water service to the area in and around Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, for 57 years, cable TV service for 48 years, and high capacity fiber optic connectivity for about three years. The Plant Board's cable system is the largest municipally owned system in the country and one of the first cable systems of any kind in operation. The Plant Board chose ESRI's ArcFM to manage its electric and water operation and plans to use Network Engineer to manage its new HFC system.

"The ability to easily integrate Network Engineer within the Plant Board's GIS environment will enhance our ability to coordinate and consolidate the activities of various departments," said Farid Nacer of Infolead Consulting, Lead Consultant to the Plant Board. "Utilities like the Frankfort Plant Board need the flexibility and rapid deployment capabilities provided by Network Engineer if they are to compete successfully in the new utility marketplace," Nacer added.

"We are excited about the positive feedback for Network Engineer that we continue to receive within the marketplace," said Karl Groux, President and CEO of MESA Solutions. "As we continue to enhance and expand our product offerings, we anticipate even greater demand from telecommunications and utility companies of all sizes."

Network Engineer's unique and sophisticated use of ESRI's ArcInfo 8 GIS platform was recognized yesterday at the ESRI User Conference in San Diego, California. Jack Dangermond, President and Founder of ESRI, declared the Telcordia (TM) Network Engineer a winner of the 1999 ArcInfo Challenge, an annual contest distinguishing exciting new applications built with ArcInfo 8.

For a demonstration of Network Engineer, visit the MESA Solutions /Telcordia Technologies booth (No. 843) at the ESRI User Conference, or contact Telcordia Technologies at [phone], or MESA Solutions, Inc. at (888) 909-MESA.

About Telcordia Technologies

Telcordia Technologies, Inc. (formerly Bellcore) an SAIC company, provides software, engineering, consulting and training services to optimize the performance of communication networks worldwide. Created in 1984, Telcordia employs 6,000 professionals and has revenues of more than $1.2 billion. Telcordia (www.telcordia.com) is headquartered in Morristown, NJ, with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia Pacific.

About MESA Solutions

MESA Solutions, Inc. a Telcordia subsidiary, delivers high quality, integrated spatial information technology and work management application design, development and deployment services to energy and telecommunications customers worldwide. MESA Solutions, Inc. (www.mesahq.com) is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.