ConnectSouth Introduces High-Speed Broadband Access and Internet Business Tools to the Charlotte Business Community.

ConnectSouth, a leading provider of high-speed connectivity and Internet business tools, announced today the availability of services to the Charlotte market. ConnectSouth offers turnkey Internet solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB's). Charlotte is one of nine North and South Carolina cities that ConnectSouth will expand into this year. The others are Raleigh, Greensboro, Asheville & Wilmington in North Carolina and Charleston, Anderson, Greenville, & Columbia in South Carolina. These cities are part of ConnectSouth's $225 million plan to provide service to small and medium-sized businesses in the Southern region.

"Our commitment to providing an unmatched customer experience, combined with customer friendly business tools and high-speed Internet access will help Charlotte businesses become more productive, efficient and competitive," stated Jeff Mucci, CEO of ConnectSouth. "Our funding, management and investment in customer driven systems, provides us with a solid foundation to provide businesses in Charlotte with world-class service and support."

ConnectSouth is focused on being a partner with the Charlotte community. The company's presence will bring the potential of new jobs and enhanced products and services for SMB's. ConnectSouth believes strongly in utilizing the services of local people to provide local service, so the company will recruit for its local offices from the Charlotte community. "ConnectSouth is not just interested in being a corporation in the community but an active corporate citizen to the people of Charlotte," said Mucci. "An example of this commitment would be the millions of dollars we have invested in a carrier class collocation center and network to establish Charlotte as a regional Internet hub."

ConnectSouth customizes its services to meet each customer's specific needs, providing enterprise-quality products to businesses previously left behind by the technology boom. The result: customers enjoy quick, reliable and secure e-business and communications applications.

Charlotte customers can look forward to the following customer focused tools and products, all designed to help their businesses start taking advantage of the Internet. These options enable businesses to expand their reach and communicate with customers, vendors, and employees more effectively.

• High-Speed Internet Access - provides multiple users with fast and reliable connection to the Internet.



• Virtual Private Networks (VPN) - deliver a manageable and cost effective solution to link remote offices securely.



• Firewall Technology - provides businesses with secure and reliable protection between computer systems and the public Internet.



• Web Hosting - provides a total solution for hosting a business Web site including domain registration, and storage for the Web site on high-performance servers.



• E-Commerce - provides businesses with a complete solution for hosting an e-commerce enabled Web site for selling products or services securely over the Internet.



• Online Backup and Storage - is a real-time backup solution for Windows NT servers that send data to an off-site secure facility, for maximum data protection.



• Co-Location - provides businesses with a secure and environmentally controlled data center facility to house their mission-critical Internet equipment and applications.

"I'm looking forward to helping our Charlotte customers grow their business and to taking an active role in the beautiful community of Charlotte" said Mucci.

ConnectSouth Communications, Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, is an "e-enabler," providing a full range of high-speed connectivity and Internet business application tools for small and medium-sized businesses in the Southern Region of the United States. For more information, visit ConnectSouth's website (www.connectsouth.com), or call 1-877-309-5557.