History (page 2)

These solutions allow NetRail's business partners to incorporate leading-edge technologies such as DSL and wireless data communications into a comprehensive solution. This solution means that a once fragmented array of telecommunications elements converge into a single package that gives mobile professionals a set of operational tools not previously available. By utilizing NetRail's optimized backbone and value-added products and services, NetRail's partners are empowered to gain and maintain customer market share. And since NetRail does not market its products and services to end-users, they do not compete with their own business partners in the marketplace.

NetRail began its journey in 1994 as a regional ISP servicing the Greater Washington, D.C. area. By 1996 the company operated a nationwide Tier One backbone and began providing IP and colocation services to government and business accounts. The company relocated its headquarters and Network Operations Center (NOC) to Atlanta, Georgia in 1997.

The company's transformation began in September of 1999 when Stephen Massey became NetRail's President and CEO. Massey's vision was to establish NetRail as the Universal Networking solution for NSPs, providing the answer to today's converging technologies. He realized that service providers would soon require one backbone that was capable of carrying all broadband traffic - data, voice, and video. In Massey's mind, no other network was better positioned to be that backbone than NetRail.

With that goal in mind, the company's focus shifted from end-user corporate accounts over to CLECs, ISPs, wireless carriers, voice over IP carriers, ASPs and other network service providers. This allows NetRail to focus its resources on the unique requirements of these next generation service providers. To implement this vision, an executive management team was assembled with experience from Lucent Technologies, MindSpring, Inc., and BellSouth.

In just a few months it was clear that Massey's vision was right on target. In the six-month period from September 1999 through February 2000, the company has signed customer contracts representing a twenty-fold increase in revenues compared to the previous eight-month period.