Madison River Communications

For Immediate Release: March 1, 2000
Mebane, North Carolina
MEBTEL COMMUNICATIONS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF NEW HORIZONS INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER
Contact: Craig Stapel, (919) 563-8333 or Kevin Hancock, Marketing Manager, Madison River Telephone Company, (919) 563-8227

MEBANE, NC -- On March 1, 2000, Mebtel Communications announced the acquisition of Hew Horizon Internet service, a Mebane-based Internet Service Provider.

The acquisition will increase Mebtel Communications Internet subscriber base by over 500 dial-up Internet and web-hosting customers. Mebtel Communications also acquired the rights to the domain names of New Horizon Internet Service. The acquisition of the domain names allows New Horizon customers to retain their current email addresses and their user names. This will result in a transparent conversion for New Horizon customers. New Horizons will retain the computer sales and service portion of their business.

Mebtel Communications offers its Internet Service customers 24 hour a day, 7-day a week Help Desk support and monthly rates as low as $14.95 per month.

Mebtel Communications is a Madison River Communications company that provides integrated communications solutions to the areas it serves as both an incumbent provider and an emerging competitive provider of voice and data communications, including local, high speed Internet access, enhanced data, DSL, long distance, 800 services, and custom calling features.

Founded in 1996, Madison River has experienced dramatic and sustained growth since its inception. With the anticipated second quarter acquisition of Georgia based Coastal Utilities, Inc., Madison River's telephone access lines total will climb to nearly 189,000. Madison River provides long distance services to over 34,000 customers and Internet access service to over 22,000 customers. The addition of Coastal will further the company's goal to provide integrated communications services to customers through Madison River's 2,200 route mile Fiber Optic network spanning the southern United States, connecting Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas and its 500 route mile network stretching throughout the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Madison River, LLC is a holding company created to acquire, operate and enhance rural telephone companies, and to use advanced technology to provide competitive communications services in nearby markets. Headquartered in Mebane, NC, the company is owned by affiliates of Madison Dearborn Partners, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Company, Providence Equity Partners, and members of management.