UUNET SA, WebMail and EasyInfo in one million Rand hosting deal

Johannesburg, 03 Jul 2002

South African online service provider, Interface Media <IT Media>, has selected UUNET SA, a WorldCom company, as its new hosting partner for both the WebMail.co.za and EasyInfo.co.za Web sites. The deal, worth over one million Rand, is the largest hosting agreement for UUNET SA to date.

Since migrating the Web sites onto first tier Internet Service Provider (ISP) UUNET SA`s backbone on 27 April 2002, WebMail.co.za, South Africa`s largest free e-mail service, has seen its page impressions increase from 73 million to 85 million per month. Alan Lipschitz, managing director of Interface Media <IT Media> says, "Being on UUNET SA`s high speed backbone has ensured that our Web sites are easier and faster to access and we believe that this is the reason behind the increase in page impressions."

UUNET SA has deployed Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and ATM technology across its entire backbone, enabling the optimisation of network resource utilisation to reduce congestion and improve the cost and efficiency of carrying IP traffic while ensuring full network redundancy.

"With WebMail.co.za`s subscriber base growing by 17 000 users per month and EasyInfo.co.za being the largest online directory service in South Africa it became a business imperative to ensure that there is as little risk as possible of downtime. To do this we needed to partner with an ISP that was able to accommodate our current needs and future growth such as providing better access to our servers, less downtime - all at a competitive price," says Thierry de Montaudry, technical director at WebMail.co.za.

"UUNET SA is able to meet all of Interface Media <IT Media>`s requirements due to our strong technology foundation. The Sandton data-centre, while being one of the largest of its kind locally, offers 24x7 access to client servers," says Rudi Hefer, account manager at UUNET SA.

Some of the features of the data-centre include, power-redundancy, fire-protection, air-conditioning, full security, and generator back-up diesel stored on-site with every cable connection capable of 1000Mbps. "The data-centre has been built to ensure that it offers our customers, such as Webmial.co.za and EasyInfo.co.za, the scalability and flexibility they need to develop now and in the future," concludes Hefer.

UUNET SA

UUNET SA, a WorldCom company, is Southern Africa`s only pan-African provider of Internet-based network services and is the largest global carrier of Internet traffic. The company provides Internet connectivity and corporate network services to major corporations as well as access services to Internet Service Providers.

All UUNET SA products and services are delivered within the required regulatory conditions.

WorldCom

WorldCom, Inc. (NASDAQ: WCOM, MCIT) is a pre-eminent global communications provider for the digital generation, operating in more than 65 countries. With one of the most expansive, wholly owned IP networks in the world, WorldCom provides innovative data and Internet services for businesses to communicate in today`s market. In April 2002, WorldCom launched The Neighbourhood built by MCI - the industry`s first truly any-distance, all-inclusive local and long-distance offering to consumers for one fixed monthly price. Effective July 12, 2002, WorldCom will eliminate its tracking stock structure and have one class of common stock with the NASDAQ ticker symbol WCOM. For more information, go to http://www.worldcom.com.

For more information please visit the UUNET SA Website on www.uunet.co.za

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