GTE introduces DestinationFAX(SM) Internet service based on NetCentric FaxStorm technology. Internet fax offering part of GTEs strategic movement into multibillion dollar data communications market.

Editors Note: GTE to demonstrate its new Internet fax service during Spring Internet World 98, Los Angeles Convention Center, March 11-13, GTE booth #1424.

LOS ANGELES GTE, one of the worlds largest telecommunications companies, today announced plans to offer an Internet-based fax service that will give businesses and consumers more feature-rich capabilities, and an attractive, more affordable alternative to existing faxing. GTE will immediately offer its Internet fax service on a limited trial basis through mid-year, making it commercially available this summer.

The service, to be marketed as GTE DestinationFAXSM (www.gte-fax.com), utilizes NetCentric Corporations FaxStorm Internet fax technology, and includes a suite of services that deliver enhanced fax applications to customers over their existing Internet connections.

Specifically, GTE DestinationFAX enables customers to send and receive faxes from their computer desktop, email system, the World Wide Web, and standalone fax equipment. GTE DestinationFAX also supports specialty services such as self-managed fax broadcasting, fax to e-mail and fax on demand.

With GTE DestinationFAX, fax transmissions will move over GTEs private and secure IP network, providing increased savings for customers as well as improving reliability and security.

"The move toward Internet-based faxing has been gaining momentum for well over a year," said Jeff Pulver, president of Pulver.com, an Internet based consulting firm in Melville, N.Y. "This announcement symbolizes a milestone as the moment when the industry has shifted into high gear with carrier class Internet fax services brought to reality by GTE and NetCentric working together."

According to a Gallup/Pitney Bowes study on the faxing habits of Fortune 500 and Dunn & Bradstreet mid-sized companies, more than 60 percent of faxes are sent long distance, and an average of $15 million is spent annually by Fortune 500 companies on faxing. By 2002, the total U.S. fax market is projected to exceed $34 billion as customers demand enhanced features not available through a PSTN service provider.

"GTEs intent is to leverage our national marketing scope, IP backbone and service delivery competencies to inject a unique flow of value to customers," said Chris Brickler, director of enhanced IP services for GTE. "Our existing customers want, and future customers will want, maximum convenience and cost-effectiveness in their communications whether they are using the telephone, faxing or emailing.

"Faxing alone accounts for more than one-third of the average business current phone bill," added Brickler, "and GTE DestinationFAX will be particularly attractive to large and medium-sized businesses and small-office/home-office customers because it provides true carrier-class quality while delivering desktop convenience, intelligent processing, transmission security, usage tracking and lower rates."

"GTE is a global telecommunications leader that is demonstrating an aggressive IP strategy," said Paul MacKay, president of NetCentric Corporation. "We are proud to be selected by such a leader. We believe that commercial Internet fax services will become widely available around the world during 1998, and GTE will be one of the first to do it."

GTE DestinationFAX is among a suite of enhanced IP (Internet protocol) services that GTE is aggressively developing this year as part of an overall strategy to be a leader in the $100 billion market for value-added data communications services -- the most rapidly growing segment of the telecommunications industry.

To support that effort, GTE last year acquired Internet pioneer BBN Corporation, and began constructing its own national 17,000-mile-long, high-capacity data network on which its enhanced IP service traffic will be delivered. GTEs high-speed national network will ultimately connect more than 100 major metropolitan markets upon completion next year.

The GTE DestinationFAX service will debut with NetCentric FaxStorm servers deployed throughout the U.S., said Greg Lensch, program manager-enhanced IP services for GTE, with increased deployment plans to service about 90 percent of U.S. businesses. Customers can electronically sign up for the GTE DestinationFAX service at http://www.gte-fax.com.

About GTE DestinationFAX
GTE DestinationFAX service packages will be offered to suit a variety of business needs. Destination FAX will be offered to GTE customers as a standalone service as well, with basic pricing set at $0.12 per page within the US during the trial. Pricing to destinations outside the US varies by country. Electronic fax mailboxes will be offered with private fax numbers for $9.95 per month. Detailed information about GTE DestinationFAX can be found on the Internet at http://www.gte-fax.com. Customers can electronically sign up for the service on the web site.

About NetCentric FaxStorm
NetCentrics FaxStorm family of Internet faxing products enables Internet network operators to offer their customers a simple way to both send and receive documents from the desktop directly over the Internet. By delivering documents to standard fax machines and to PCs as email attachments, FaxStorm unites the two most popular ways of sending business information. Users can access their faxes from any web-connected desktop anywhere, anytime. Because inbound faxes are captured in electronic form, users can forward faxes to others directly from the Inbox account. NetCentrics fax-to-email feature allows faxes to be delivered to desktop computers as email attachments.

About NetCentric
NetCentric Corp., headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., was founded in January 1995 with the mission of developing software to enhance the Internet infrastructure. The first product from the privately held company is FaxStorm, an award-winning Internet fax system that enables Network Service Providers and telecommunications companies to offer Internet fax as a comprehensive value-added service. FaxStorm has been selected by more major network service providers than any other IP-based fax system. NetCentric was recently named one of the Top 100 emerging technology companies by Computerworld.
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