Transaction Network Services Signs Deal With Westel to Provide Local Number Portability in Australia.

RESTON, Va. and SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 1999--

Transaction Network Services, Inc. (TNS) (NYSE:TNI), the leading transaction transport service provider in the U.S., announced today that it has signed an agreement with Westel Group Limited, based in Sydney, Australia, to provide local number portability services to the Australian telecommunications market.

The Westel Group has an exclusive commercial agreement with the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) to make Number Portability available to all telecommunications users in Australia. Number portability enables a user of telecommunications services to retain their telephone number when changing service provider. Westel's subsidiary, Concentrix Pty. Ltd., also based in Sydney, will operate and manage the number portability service. Concentrix will demonstrate the service in Sydney in November, just prior to system roll-out early next year.

"TNS has outstanding credentials in the on-line network transaction market and in deploying number portability solutions," said Scott Frayne, Westel's managing director and CEO. "Along with the supply of the hardware and software platforms, the agreement includes a multi-million dollar vendor finance package directly supported by TNS, so we share the same commitment to bringing a successful number portability solution to the Australian market."

Concentrix is building a mediated advanced intelligent network and database which incorporate TNS' robust, proprietary platform made up of specialized hardware and software components designed and developed by TNS. The service can be accessed by any of the Australian carriers to enable them to offer their customers number portability and a range of other intelligent network services.

"As part of our effort to rapidly deploy number portability in Australia, we evaluated telecom service providers around the world and found TNS to have the best technology and best overall number portability solution," said Concentrix CEO Graham Bickley. "The company has a very good understanding of international telecommunications and transaction networks through its experience in the UK and throughout the world. TNS was able to quickly adapt its reliable service to the Australian telecom environment and provide us with proven technology that serves as a number portability model in the U.S. For us, it's a solution that will help us to offer more sustainable benefits and greater choices to our customers quickly and cost-effectively."

"As part of our global expansion effort, TNS has been adapting many of its domestic services for international use," explained Jim Mullen, senior vice president and general manager of TNS' International Systems division. "Our number portability platform, which we originally developed for our own use in the U.S., is now offered as a service or a turn-key system for use by other service providers worldwide. We are extremely proud that our number portability system has been chosen as the standard for the Australian market as it opens its doors to competitive telecommunications."

The TNS platform supports number portability for local, mobile, and toll-free numbers, and it supports database "dips" in response to C7 messages from a carrier's intelligent network switches. Carriers can connect with the Concentrix system using Signal Transfer Points (STPs) supplied by TNS or other manufacturers.

"We are pleased that CONCENTRIX has teamed with TNS," said Allan Horsley, managing director of ATUG. "TNS has been providing leading edge telecom services to competitive telecommunications providers in the U.S. and Europe for years and clearly understands the dynamics of the rapidly changing telecommunications environment. We're confident that TNS will help Westel and Concentrix facilitate a more competitive telecom environment here in Australia as well."

Westel Group Limited is a diverse telecommunications company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Concentrix is a majority owned subsidiary of Westel Group Limited.

ATUG is regarded as the foremost representative of telecommunications users in Australia.

Transaction Network Services, Inc. (TNS), headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with subsidiaries in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, and Japan, provides data communications services for transaction-oriented applications worldwide. In 1998, TNS carried over 4 billion transactions in the U.S. alone. Its customers include the largest transaction processors in the U.S., such as First Data Corporation and National Data Corporation, top financial services firms such as Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Putnam Investments, and Fidelity Investments Trading in the U.S. and Barclays Merchant Services in the UK, and the majority of the independent and competitive telecommunications firms in the U.S. TNS, with a market capitalization of over $500 million, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol TNI. In August, the company announced that it would merge with PSINet, the first and largest independent commercial Internet service provider in the world, to create a global eCommerce and Internet Service powerhouse. Additional company information is available on the TNS website at www.tnsi.com.

Certain statements and information contained in this news release that are not descriptions of historical fact may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, including technological changes, TNS' ability to develop and introduce services and products in international markets on a timely and cost-effective basis, competition and changes in government regulation. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the international markets for TNS' products will develop and expand or that TNS will be successful in its efforts to penetrate these

markets. See TNS' reports filed with the SEC for additional discussion of these risks and other factors which may effect TNS.