FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Summary: eLEC announces acquisition of New Jersey-based
CLEC, Telecarrier Services, Inc. Telecarrier
adds approximately 4,000 total lines, direct
sales capabilities and experienced telecommun-
ications management to eLEC.
Contact: Paul Riss, CEO, eLEC 203-750-1000
phriss@elec-corp.com
Michael Lagana, CEO, Telecarrier,
732-417-9300
mlagana@telecarrier.com
Zina Hassel, VP, Telecarrier,
732-417-9300
zhassel@telecarrier.com
Norwalk, CT... January 24, 2000 --- eLEC Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:ELEC)
announced today the acquisition of Telecarrier Services, Inc., a competitive
local exchange carrier ("CLEC") that provides local exchange services in four
states and long distance service in 13 states. The acquisition increases to 14
the total number of states in which eLEC operates. Telecarrier has approximately
4,000 lines in service, with approximately 50% of those lines providing local
services. eLEC plans to convert Telecarrier's resale lines in New York and
Massachusetts to eLEC's Unbundled Network Elements Platform ("UNE-P") based
leased network.
Paul Riss, eLEC's CEO, stated, "We are very pleased with the additional
resources that this acquisition brings to eLEC. Telecarrier has successfully
combined 4,000 long distance lines with approximately 2,000 local lines and
operated a break-even business under local resale. We plan to convert most of
the local lines to UNE-P so that we can create a more profitable book of
business from this customer base."
"We are also very pleased to welcome Michael Lagana, an executive with over 25
years of telecom experience, to our management team," continued Mr. Riss.
"Michael will be a significant addition to our sales and marketing effort, as he
will head up our direct sales efforts and manage the sales we make through
agents and interconnect companies. We need this distribution channel to
complement our telemarketing efforts so that not only can we continue to enjoy
the rapid growth that we have been experiencing, but also expand our base to
include larger commercial customers who will utilize more of our bundled product
offerings. Michael's extensive experience in the CPE (customer premise
equipment) telecom business is a valuable asset to eLEC and to the larger, more
sophisticated commercial market. His knowledge of telecom equipment and services
brings a `single-source' vendor concept to the eLEC customer base. This
background allows off site management experience for those commercial accounts
that are not quite large enough to justify a dedicated telecom manager.
Michael's experience and industry contacts are a valuable addition to our
company and his record in building telecom companies is impressive."
Michael Lagana, CEO of Telecarrier, added, "I am very excited with the direction
eLEC is taking. eLEC will provide us with greatly enhanced margins on our local
business and expand our bundle of products to include Web design, Web hosting,
dial-up Internet access, xDSL and other data services. We have managed to build
a significant distribution network of agents and interconnect companies with
limited resources. With eLEC's resources and product offerings, we expect to be
able to expand our distribution network and rapidly accelerate our combined
growth."
Telecarrier was founded in 1992 by Michael Lagana and is licensed as a CLEC in
New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It also resells multiple
vendor long distance services, in addition to providing calling cards and
equipment rentals. Its focus on customer service, comprehensive invoicing for
multiple products and locations, and monthly telecom usage reports for
management's review has helped to create a customer base that averages 10 lines
per account. The monthly management report, a standard reporting feature for
Telecarrier customers, is of great value in the monthly monitoring of telecom
cost distribution. Telecarrier offers long distance services in California,
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.
eLEC Communications Corp. is a publicly-traded local telecommunications
company that seeks to take advantage of the convergence of the current and
future competitive technological and regulatory developments in the Internet and
telecommunications markets. eLEC provides an integrated suite of communications
services to small and medium-sized business customers, including local, long
distance, dial-up access, dedicated access, xDSL, and Web site design and
hosting.
*********
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. eLEC's actual results may differ materially from the results
discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a
difference include, among others, availability of management; availability,
terms, and deployment of capital; eLEC's ability to successfully market its
services to current and new customers, generate customer demand for its product
and services in the geographical areas in which eLEC can operate, access new
markets, negotiate and maintain suitable interconnection agreements with the
incumbent local exchange carriers, and negotiate and maintain suitable vendor
relationships, all in a timely manner, at reasonable cost and on satisfactory
terms and conditions, as well as regulatory, legislative and judicial
developments that could cause actual results to vary in such forward-looking
statements.