WilTel teams with network integrator to provide first public frame relay service into Mexico

Tulsa, Okla. (May 8, 1995)-- WilTel International Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of LDDS Communications Inc., has signed an agreement with Intersys Mexico, S.A. de C.V. to establish a new international public frame relay network connection from the U.S. to Mexico.

WilTel will connect its WilPak frame relay service to the InterVan frame relay network established by Intersys. Intersys, founded in 1985, is a Mexico City-based network integration company specializing in complex corporate networks, with product and service offerings in 25 cities throughout Mexico. "During these historic times in Mexico, companies must work for increased efficiency in their business operations while delegating technical activities to those who are experts on them," said Marcelino Gomez-Velasco, Intersys president. "Intersys' mission is to offer Mexican businesses vital technical telecommunications expertise."

WilPak is WilTel's public data service utilizing frame and cell relay technology. WilPak accommodates multi-protocol, multi-vendor data environments and provides and single physical interface into the WilTel telecommunications service network supports multiple remote locations through the dynamic allocation of capacity. "The establishment of a public frame relay network will be of great importance to the financial community in Mexico, especially between the three main cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey," said Dr. Cornelio Robledo Sosa, information systems manager at Banco de Mexico. "This WilPak-InterVan network connection will provide very valuable options in telecommunications services to a variety of institutions throughout this strategic business region in Mexico."

In January of this year, WilTel and Intersys signed an agreement allowing Intersys to interconnect their customers' northbound (to the U.S.) InterVan high speed frame relay data traffic with WilTel's WilPak frame relay network at a border crossing along the U.S.-Mexico border. WilTel is carrying the InterVan traffic on its WilPak network to cities throughout the United States and abroad. This is the first national public frame relay service offering available to end users in Mexico. This new agreement will allow for the southbound termination of WilTel's WilPak frame relay service for U.S. business interests into Mexico.

Within the past 12 months, WilTel has aggressively expanded its WilPak frame relay service to key financial centers in Europe, Asia and Canada, offered direct dial telecommunications service to Cuba and provided private line service to more than 40 countries worldwide. With the new agreement, WilTel is looking toward Mexico to continue expanding telecommunications solutions for businesses in that region and to support increased trade and commercial market expansion throughout North America. "Information is becoming one of the vital factors of production, along with land, labor and capital," said Rick Gibbens, director of WilTel International. "WilTel is very pleased to be able to work with Intersys to facilitate delivery of a premiere communications channel to Mexico upon which vital information can travel for use in the development of the Mexican economy." WilTel's agreements with Intersys make WilTel the first major U.S. telecommunications company to provide nationwide public frame relay service access to locations in Mexico.

WilTel is a full-service telecommunications company that offers domestic and international data, voice and video products and services to carriers and large business customers. WilTel operates a nationwide digital fiber-optic network for its parent company, LDDS, which is one of the four largest U.S.-based long-distance carriers. The shares of LDDS Communications, Inc. trade on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol LDDS.