ConnectSouth Introduces Co-location Services to Customers. Extends product offering to include state-of-the-art Co-location facilities and network services.

ConnectSouth, a leading provider of high-speed connectivity and Internet business tools, announced today the availability of Co-location services to its targeted customer base. Co-location adds to the company's already extensive list of Internet business tools and is a critical piece of the companies $225 million business plan to provide service to small and medium-sized businesses in the Southern region.

"ConnectSouth is committed to providing our customers with a complete suite of e-enabling products and services," said Jeff Mucci, CEO of ConnectSouth. "By ConnectSouth adding Co-location to our customer offerings, we allow small to medium sized businesses to have access to state-of- the- art Internet ready facilities, that were once only reserved for very large companies."

Co-location services provide businesses with a secure and environmentally controlled facility to house their networking equipment and servers. The dedicated facility features cabinets for storage, a source for regulated and redundant power, multi-homed bandwidth and network access including 24 x 7 network monitoring services. The solution is ideal for small to medium sized businesses that lack the IT and financial resources to build and manage an Internet ready facility, businesses with special power requirements as well as those concerned with the security of their equipment. Co-location reduces the threat of damage to equipment and applications due to disaster, fire, theft, vandalism and other security issues.

The challenge facing many companies today is to build an infrastructure quickly and affordably with the capacity to handle important business servers and applications. ConnectSouth relieves the companies of that challenge by internally building the infrastructure and providing services that would be difficult for them to maintain. The ConnectSouth solution is also flexible enough to expand as the company grows.

Co-location allows customers to specify their space, power and networking requirements and ConnectSouth technical consultants design an infrastructure to meet these needs.

ConnectSouth's Austin Data Center facility is available immediately. ConnectSouth plans expansion of Co-location services throughout the Southern region with additional Co-location data centers ready for business Q1 and Q2, 2001 in Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana.

ConnectSouth's complete suite of e-enabling tools and products includes the following:

• 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.

"ConnectSouth is built to last," said Mucci. "Just as we are committed to our longevity, so are we to our customers success and growth.

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.