Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications
Builds Fiber Optic Network; High Speed Networking
Comes To Central Pennsylvania

2-27-98
University Park, PA -- In a joint announcement today, Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications and Penn State revealed that a $10 million fiber optic network is now under construction that will boost the University's national leadership in telecommunications and information technology, provide expanded services, lower rates for other area businesses, and add a new tenant for the Penn State Research Park by next fall.

The state-of-the-art fiber optic network will be used to offer a wide variety of high-quality, lower-cost telecommunications services to central Pennsylvania users. Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications, LLC., a joint venture announced last December between Allegheny Energy, Inc. and Hyperion Telecommunications, Inc., is investing more than $10 million to bring central Pennsylvania these services, which will be available to area business consumers this fall.

At a press conference today at Penn State, President Graham B. Spanier said Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunication's development of the new fiber optic network and the sophisticated new telecommunications services it will permit are good news for the University and for the community. "We are grateful that Allegheny Hyperion is taking action to enhance telecommunications here in central Pennsylvania," Spanier said. "This offers Penn State new opportunities that our faculty and students will quickly take advantage of and it also offers us potential for significant cost savings."

Penn State has taken a leadership role in developing the next generation of advanced information technology, the Internet 2. Penn State is one of more than 100 U.S. universities working to develop the new, superfast, national computer network that is expected to be faster and provide better distance learning capabilities, video conferencing, and on-line research.

"With more than 1.7 million e-mail messages a day transmitted here at Penn State, more than 38,000 computers directly attached to Penn State's network, and tens of thousands of computers in faculty, staff, and student residences off campus that are connected indirectly via modem, it is critical that Penn State has access to the most advanced telecommunications services possible," Spanier said. "This new initiative by Allegheny Hyperion will give us that access and has the added benefit of enabling businesses and individuals throughout central Pennsylvania to take similar advantage of these exciting new telecommunications services."

The network Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications is building will enable business consumers in the State College and Altoona areas to take advantage of new telecommunications services, including high-capacity dedicated telecommunications services between business and commercial locations; services connecting business locations with long-distance carriers; and local telephone service.

Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications combines fiber optics with advanced Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) equipment to provide superior performance, reliability, and cost advantages over the conventional copper technologies. This advanced technology also provides greater capacity than copper technologies and the potential to offer new, innovative services at competitive prices.

Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications selected the State College and Altoona markets as the location for its network because of the many benefits an advanced telecommunications infrastructure could bring to the region.

"Telecommunications services are critical to the success of businesses today," said Richard J. Gagliardi, vice president, Allegheny Energy. "Having access to innovative telecommunications services will give businesses in the region the technological tools they need to remain competitive with businesses across the state and the country.

"This venture is an example of how Allegheny Energy demonstrates its commitment to the communities we serve and the Company's interest in supporting state-of-the-art technologies," continued Gagliardi. "For many years as Allegheny Power, we have provided reliable, low-cost energy to the State College area. Now we have an opportunity through our partnership with Hyperion to extend our commitment by bringing consumers in the region superior telecommunications services at competitive prices." According to Dan Milliard, president of Hyperion, "With strong ties to Pennsylvania, Hyperion is committed to ensuring that our rural communities have the opportunity to benefit from advanced telecommunications services. Business consumers will be able to select from an array of sophisticated telecommunications services that will contribute to their businesses' success as well as to the overall economic viability of the region."

In addition, Allegheny Hyperion Telecommunications will lease 8,000 square feet of office space in Penn State's Research Park facility that is currently under construction. Plans call for the building to be ready for occupancy by September 1998.

Doing business as Allegheny Power, Allegheny Energy's regulated subsidiaries -- Monongahela Power Company, The Potomac Edison Company, and West Penn Power Company -- provide electric service to 1.4 million customers throughout a 29,000-square-mile service territory in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Allegheny Energy is partnering through its non-regulated affiliate, Allegheny Communications Connect, Inc., with Hyperion Telecommunications to provide competitive telecommunications services.

Hyperion Telecommunications is the telecommunications subsidiary of Adelphia Communications Corporation, headquartered in Coudersport, PA. Adelphia is the nation's seventh largest cable TV company with more than 1.9 million subscribers in 13 eastern states. Hyperion presently operates 18 telecommunications networks throughout the country, including Syracuse, NY; Buffalo, NY; the state of Vermont; Harrisburg, PA; York, PA; Richmond, VA; Charlottesville, VA; Jacksonville, FL; Nashville, TN; Louisville, KY; Lexington, KY; Philadelphia, PA; Central, NJ; Wichita, KS; Little Rock, AR; Baton Rouge, LA; and Jackson, MS.

With its University Park Campus in State College and 23 additional campus locations throughout Pennsylvania, Penn State enrolls approximately 79,000 students in a variety of programs that are among the top-ranked in the nation.

-###-

Contacts:
Bill Mahon, Public Information Director, Penn State, 814-865-7517
Dan Milliard, President, Hyperion Telecommunications, Inc., 814-274-9830
Angie Rice-Figueroa, Communications Specialist, Allegheny Energy, 301-790-6174