Dulles, VA., April 6, 2000 - MCI WorldCom (NASDAQ:WCOM) and America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that they have extended their existing agreements for dial-up access services in the U.S. MCI WorldCom's Internet subsidiary, UUNET, has been a provider for AOLnet, the world's largest dial-up network, for several years. Under the expanded relationship, UUNET will continue to build out and manage a significant portion of AOLnet, as well as continue to provide AOL with dial-up services on UUNET's Dial Access Network.
"MCI WorldCom and America Online share a long history together," said John Sidgmore, vice chairman of MCI WorldCom and chairman of UUNET. "This new deal signals that UUNET has successfully met AOL's high performance measures in the past and that AOL has continued faith in our performance for the long-term. These agreements expand our companies' commitment to work together, and we look forward to helping AOL meet its growth requirements well into the future."
"As AOL has increased its subscriber base to more than 22 million members, UUNET has helped us meet our growing network demands," said Geraldine MacDonald, AOL's Vice President for AOLnet Operations. "UUNET's services have helped AOL offer its members a high-quality, responsive network and we look forward to our expanded relationship with them."
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 22 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.5 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.
About MCI WorldCom and UUNET MCI WorldCom (NASDAQ: WCOM) is a global leader in "all-distance" communications services with operations in more than 65 countries. Revenues in 1999 were $37 billion, with more than $15 billion from high-growth data, Internet and international services. MCI WorldCom and Sprint have announced a merger agreement, which the companies expect to close in the second half of 2000 after regulatory and shareholder approvals. For more information go to http://www.wcom.com. UUNET (www.uu.net), an MCI WorldCom company and a global leader in Internet communications solutions, offers a comprehensive range of Internet services to businesses, online service providers and telecommunications firms.
