Allegiance On-line Business Center Makes It Easy To Be An E-Business

Allegiance also unveiled its new Business Resource Center, providing easy access to a wide variety of business focused websites. This comprehensive web listing of business services is designed to save users of hundreds of hours searching the Internet. Allegiance's Business Resource Center includes one-click, frequently updated information on ordering business equipment and supplies, legal advice, trademark searches, government contracts and other areas of interest to businesses.

These two newly announced initiatives are the second phase of Allegiance Telecom's On-line Business Center, a complete family of business services available to all Allegiance Telecom customers. From basic Web site hosting to automating applications for sales, customer support and other business activities, the Allegiance On-line Business Center is designed to help propel companies into the rapidly expanding universe of conducting business via the web. The first phase, announced earlier this year, featured the Allegiance Enterprise Portal, a customized Internet business gateway.

Bundled in a single user-friendly solution, the new Allegiance Telecom E-Commerce Package provides businesses with everything needed to market their products and services on-line. Allegiance Telecom, working directly with strategic business partners such as Open Markets' Shop Site Manager and and Authorize.net (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Go2Net, a Vulcan Ventures company), handles the technical set-up and applications, letting users focus on managing and operating their business. Functions are accomplished via clicks of a mouse; the business customer doesn't need to know software programming in order to establish a site. The simple-to-follow wizard guides take the user through a step-by-step procedure to create an on-line catalog of products and services to offer their customers via the web.

A wide range of bundled e-commerce capabilities are available, including shopping cart service to help customers accumulate and catalog purchases, back office support systems, access to secure transaction processing capacity and an easy-to-use customer toolkit. Anyone who can click a mouse can build a basic e-commerce site; no programming or technical hardware knowledge is required.

On-line ordering options for such incremental Internet products as e-mail boxes, accounts, disk space, etc. are part of the package. Other features of the Allegiance Telecom E-Commerce Package include domain name-based e-mail accounts and a toll-free 800 number that can be used for customer service and inquiries.

Allegiance's customer toolkit allows businesses to individually activate and maintain their basic Web site and e-mail options, without the need for expensive in-house technical support. With the Allegiance E-Commerce Package, there's no CD to install or software to download. Everything the user needs to create and modify their company's on-line store resides on a remote Allegiance-managed server, accessible through regular web browsers. Template-driven web design makes it easy to create a site on your own.

Allegiance Telecom serves as the single point of contact for businesses, with one number to call for technical and service help, billing inquiries, etc. And as a convenient single source provider, billing for all Allegiance e-commerce applications (as well as voice, data and other telecommunications services purchased from Allegiance) are submitted to businesses in a unified format and credited with a single payment.

The third phase of Allegiance's Telecom's On-line Business Center, to be unveiled later this year, will feature advanced application hosting, virtual private networks (VPNs) and other advanced Internet applications tailored to the small and medium sized business. Designed to help businesses communicate and collaborate, these applications will be available in a rent vs. buy, use as needed basis, helping businesses save money and make advanced applications more affordable.

About Allegiance Telecom
Allegiance Telecom (www.allegiancetele.com) is a facilities-based local exchange carrier headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Allegiance offers businesses a complete package of telecommunications services, including local, long distance, international calling, high-speed data transmission and Internet services. Allegiance is targeting 36 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. with its "one-stop shopping" approach. Allegiance's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ALGX.

Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and the Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. The words "believes," "expects," "estimates," "anticipates," "will be" and "plans" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Company. These forward-looking statements are subject to many uncertainties and factors which may cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Examples of such uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, the extent to which the Company can achieve "electronic bonding" with ILECs, the Company's ability to timely and effectively provision new customers, the Company's continued access to necessary capital and the potential adverse impact of state and federal regulatory developments. Additional factors are set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement made by it or on its behalf, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.