Atlantic.Net Press Releases

Gainesville, Fla (9/17/02). – Atlantic.Net (https://www.atlantic.net), Florida’s largest privately held Internet service provider, today announced an agreement with Progress Telecom, a provider of leading-edge wholesale broadband services throughout the Eastern Seaboard. The agreement increases the size of Atlantic.Net’s network by providing the company with dedicated bandwidth within a portion of Progress Telecom’s fiber-optic network in Florida and other Southeastern states.

Because of the agreement with Progress Telecom, Atlantic.Net is able to pass along to its customers benefits including cost savings, faster provisioning, greater scalability and priority customer support. “In essence, this deal means Atlantic.Net is a carrier that’s capable of providing affordable, high-speed Internet access to businesses in even the most remote regions of Florida and the Southeast, where broadband services may not have been available before,” said Marty Puranik, president and CEO of Atlantic.Net.

“If you think of the telecom infrastructure in the Southeastern United States as a highway, Atlantic.Net now has its own lane because of this agreement,” Puranik said. “We’re pleased to collaborate with a company that shares our goal to provide businesses and consumers with superior customer service and fast, reliable Internet access.”

Paul Aiello, Progress Telecom’s vice president of sales and marketing, said: “Because our company is a metro player with dense reach into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, we have the capability of enabling providers to serve retail customers in those often underserved markets.”

Both Atlantic.Net and Progress Telecom are financially stable, established companies. Progress Telecom is a subsidiary of Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), a Fortune 250 diversified holding company that includes two major electric utilities, CP&L and Florida Power. Twice named one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies by Inc magazine, Atlantic.Net has acquired 13 Internet companies, has doubled or tripled revenues annually and has remained profitable every year since its inception in 1994.

“Our agreement with Progress Telecom better positions us to serve customers who seek to nurture a long-term relationship with an established, financially stable Internet service provider, or who may be sensitive to the corporate malfeasance of other telecom companies,” Puranik said. “Atlantic.Net has always been a technology company. We have always owned and operated our own network, and the alliance with Progress Telecom is another step toward our becoming an Internet supercarrier. Besides dramatically increasing our network’s size, we’ve boosted its capacity and made it more redundant, which further strengthens its overall speed and reliability.”

Atlantic.Net offers high-speed access, Web site services, telecommunications and dial-up. Dedicated access options include DSL, ISDN, frame relay and point-to-point T-1/T-3 connectivity. Atlantic.Net can have DSL circuits up and running within 20 business days after a contract is signed and typically installs a T-1 line in 30 days. To learn more about Atlantic.Net Business Services, call 1-800-521-5881 or visit https://www.atlantic.net.

About Atlantic.Net

Launched in 1994 Atlantic.Net is an Internet service provider offering high-speed Internet access, Web site solutions, telecommunications and dial-up. Atlantic.Net business services feature a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, 24/7 network monitoring and connection to an optimized Cisco Powered Network – a designation reserved for the world’s top 1 percent of ISPs. In 2001 Atlantic.Net was named to the Inc 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies for the second consecutive year, moving up from a rank of 350 to 223. During the past eight years Atlantic.Net has acquired 13 Internet companies, has doubled or tripled revenues annually and has remained profitable every year since inception. To learn more about Atlantic.Net call 1-800-422-2936 or visit https://www.atlantic.net.

About Progress Telecom

Founded in 1998, Progress Telecom is a provider of wholesale telecommunications services throughout the eastern United States. Progress Telecom incorporates approximately 137,000 fiber miles and more than 8,400 route miles in its network including over 155 Points-of-Presence (POPS). The fiber network serves as the backbone of OC-192 transport that allows customers enhanced data transport capabilities in the eastern United States from New York to Miami, FL, in first, second and third tier growth markets and access to Latin America through its International Gateways. The network’s utility-based infrastructure also offers fast local loop access through metropolitan fiber rings that move broadband capacity closer to the customer with 10 gigabit dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) technology. For more information about Progress Telecom, visit the company’s Website at http://www.progresstelecom.com.

Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN) is a Fortune 250 diversified holding company headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., with more than 21,500 megawatts of generation capacity and $8 billion in annual revenues. The company’s diverse portfolio includes two major electric utility companies, CP&L and Florida Power, as well as NCNG, Progress Rail, Progress Telecom and Progress Ventures, which manages the company’s non-regulated energy operations including fuel extraction, manufacturing and delivery; merchant generation; and energy marketing and trading. These companies serve 2.9 million customers across the Southeast, providing electricity, natural gas, energy services and broadband capacity. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com/.