uesday January 12, 8:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: e.spire Communications, Inc.
e.spire Communications, Inc. Signs Major Building Access Agreement With U.S. RealTel, Inc.
ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION, Md., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- e.spire Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPI - news), today announced that it has signed a national agreement with U.S. RealTel, Inc. (Nasdaq: USRT - news), the nation's largest landlord of pre-leased telecommunications access sites, giving e.spire the opportunity to serve customers in U.S. RealTel's portfolio of commercial properties across the country.
The contract specifically allows e.spire to access buildings in U.S. RealTel's portfolio based on a pre-negotiated Master Sublease. This enables e.spire to expand its current on-net market reach and speed its deployment process as the Company aggressively accelerates its focus on moving customers onto its network.
e.spire Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Anthony J. Pompliano said, ''This agreement reflects our core strategy to bring communications technology to the market as a facilities-based provider to offer small and medium-sized businesses a choice for local, long distance, data and Internet solutions. It also allows us to speed our on-net deployment process while controlling bottom line costs. More important, this alliance gives us an opportunity to identify which offices and other commercial properties in U.S. RealTel's portfolio are located on our 38 local fiber networks across the country and allows our sales efforts to focus on on-net voice and data applications.''
Jordan E. Glazov, president of U.S. RealTel, said, ''The Master Sublease gives e.spire the benefit of signing only one contract to access hundreds of business tenants of the commercial properties in our USRT Telecom Grid™, the largest source of pre-leased sites available to telecommunications companies. From this, they can select and access the number of appropriate sites in their target markets, with the payoff being faster market penetration.''
U.S. RealTel, founded in 1997, has amassed the nation's largest telecom real estate portfolio controlled by one landlord, with more than 6,500 properties in its portfolio. e.spire will expand its customer base by focusing on U.S. RealTel buildings that can be economically connected to the Company's local networks including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami and Dallas.
About U.S. RealTel
Based in Chicago, U.S. RealTel has a portfolio of thousands of real estate properties throughout the United States comprising its USRT Telecom Grid. Included in the USRT Telecom Grid are more than 65 million square feet of office space, 450 million square feet of retail shopping malls, 8 million square feet of industrial space, 50 million square feet of commercial strip center space and 300,000 apartment units.
Using its national network of more than 6,500 properties, U.S. RealTel offers significant time and cost savings to telecom companies looking to place new antennas or gain telecom access to buildings' tenants, while providing considerable additional ancillary income to property owners, such as REITs, pension funds, property funds, developers, banks, retail and chain stores, restaurant franchises, utilities and governments.
For more information, visit the U.S. RealTel Web site at: usrealtel.com.
About e.spire Communications
e.spire is a leading provider of integrated communications solutions, including dedicated access, local dial tone, long distance, advanced data, Internet and networking solutions, in markets throughout the United States. For more information on e.spire, contact www.espire.net.
Certain statements regarding the development of either company's businesses, the markets for either company's services and products, either company's anticipated capital expenditures, anticipated EBITIDA and other statements contained herein regarding matters that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Although the companies believe that their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, they can give no assurance that their expectations will be achieved. The important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements herein (the ''Cautionary Statements'') include, without limitation, either company's degree of financial leverage, risks associated with debt service requirements and interest rate fluctuations, risks associated with acquisitions and the integration thereof, the impact of restriction under either company's financial instruments, dependence on availability of transmission facilities, regulation risks including the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, contingent liabilities, the impact of competitive services and pricing, the ability of either company to successfully implement its strategies, as well as the other risks referenced from time to time in either company's filings with the SEC, including e.spire's Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 1997. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to either company or persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the Cautionary Statements. Neither company undertakes any obligation to release publicly any revisions to such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. |
