Yipes Trucks Turn Heads in Cities Across the Country; Eye-catching New Fleet of Vinyl-wrapped Vehicles Tout Yipes' Gigabit Networks.

Business/Technology Editors

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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2000

Yipes Communications, Inc., the defining provider of managed optical IP networks, today announced that it has begun delivering, to its field operations technicians across the nation, custom-wrapped and boldly designed trucks that convey the power and scalability of Yipes' gigabit networks.

Yipes has not only taken the lead in rolling-out gigabit optical networks nationwide, it is stepping ahead of the pack with its innovative marketing efforts. These vinyl-wrapped vehicles are a key component of Yipes' nationwide marketing program and extend Yipes' promotional activities into the mobile marketing arena.

The new truck fleet will promote Yipes' uniquely scalable, flexible and expandable networks with wraps declaring, "Scalability is Strength," "Flexibility is Power" and "Expandability is Freedom." These messages -- in Yipes' purple and black colors -- bolster the branding campaign that Yipes launched with national print advertisements in June 2000.

The drivers of these unique vehicles will respect the speed limits that Yipes' "light-speed" networks do not.

The vinyl wraps for Yipes' fleet were produced and attached to the vehicles by Super Graphics in Sunnyvale, Calif. -- the pioneer in creating vinyl wraps for automobiles and buses. Using a process known as electrostatic printing, Super Graphics reproduced the designs on a special type of vinyl that covers the entire body of the car without damaging the paint.

"We have worked with many companies to create custom-wrapped vehicles," said Steve Moreno, account executive at Super Graphics. "But Yipes' designs and unique covering have made this a particularly interesting project. Rarely do the designs incorporate the entire vehicle, roof and all, and most companies don't wrap their entire fleet. Yipes' approach creates a particularly striking fleet of vehicles."

"The rapid roll-out of our nationwide gigabit networks has taken a tremendous amount of coordination between network deployment, customer care and marketing," said Ron Young, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Yipes. "Our mobile marketing campaign is an excellent example of how Yipes is able to coordinate a powerful marketing message with its nationwide service and customer-centric network support team."

As it rolls out its gigabit networks across the country, Yipes is breaking bandwidth bottlenecks that constrict corporate network connectivity to the outside world, driving a new generation of data-intensive applications.

Yipes is widely recognized as the first national provider of fully scalable bandwidth on demand. Yipes' managed optical IP networks deliver an unmatched combination of speed, simplicity and flexibility, using the pervasive and familiar Ethernet interface. Yipes services include Yipes MAN (LAN-to-LAN service between business locations) and Yipes NET (high-speed Internet service), both scalable from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps, in 1 Mbps increments. Businesses can also connect sites across the country at customer-selected speeds using Yipes WAN, a wide area network service. With true bandwidth on demand, Yipes customers pay only for what they need.

Yipes today offers service in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fort Collins-Longmont, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Miami, Palo Alto, Philadelphia, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Worcester. Yipes plans to offer services in most major cities coast-to-coast by the end of this year.

Yipes is the defining provider of a new class of managed optical IP networks. Yipes leverages the elegance of native Ethernet technology to provide service that is smoothly scalable (in 1 Mbps increments) from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps, enabling the next generation of Internet services. Yipes' networks typically provide bandwidth at less than half the price of traditional data communications services. The initial services deployed over Yipes' unique network include Yipes MAN (metro area networking service), Yipes WAN (wide area networking service) and Yipes NET (high-speed Internet access). Yipes has received $91 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), The Sprout Group/DLJ, Soros Private Equity Partners, Chase Capital Partners, BancBoston Ventures/Robertson Stephens, NewSpeed Capital and strategic investors including Extreme Networks and Intel Capital. For more information, visit www.yipes.com.

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