Austin TX, July 8, 2003 – General Bandwidth, a leading telecommunications equipment provider enabling carriers to deliver enhanced voice services over broadband networks, today announced that the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, has listed General Bandwidth's G6 Packet Telephony Migration Platform on their “RUS Accepted” list. The RUS listing designates products that are acceptable for use in telecommunications systems of rural telephone companies and utilities that purchase network equipment using RUS loans for the benefit of rural broadband infrastructure development.

RUS administers several new programs for improving the quality of life in rural America. The Broadband Pilot Program, a loan program designed specifically to increase the rate of deployment of technology to small rural towns, is one of the RUS projects. Several rural telephone companies are currently deploying and trialing the General Bandwidth G6 platform, which enables a seamless migration from traditional circuit oriented voice to next generation packet voice services, to deliver packetized voice over various broadband networks including fixed wireless, DSL/T1, and fiber-to-the-premises.

About General Bandwidth Inc.

General Bandwidth Inc. is a leading developer of telecommunications equipment that is central to the build-out of the new voice infrastructure. The company's flagship G6 platform simultaneously supports voice services from existing Class 5 circuit switches as well as from next generation, packet-based softswitches. Built upon a custom-designed architecture providing greater than 99.999% carrier class availability, the G6 platform is being deployed by small and large service providers to cost effectively deliver voice services over their existing broadband infrastructure, to better utilize their existing resources by efficiently aggregating access network traffic, and to provide a migration path to end-to-end packet networks. www.genband.com

Contacts:
General Bandwidth
Tabitha Bailey
+1.805.241.2532
Tabitha.Bailey@genband.com

Trademark notes: G6 and General Bandwidth are registered trademarks of General Bandwidth Inc.