US LEC NEARLY DOUBLES NUMBER OF DATA CUSTOMERS SINCE 2002.

Continuing its positive operational performance moving into the third quarter of 2003, US LEC Corp. (NASDAQ:CLEC), Charlotte, N.C., a super-regional telecommunications carrier providing integrated voice, data and Internet services to businesses, reports that it has passed the 12,000th customer milestone, and has nearly doubled its number of data customers since June of last year.

"US LEC's customers understand that we deliver superior services, with reliable bundled products, accurate billing and prompt attention to their changing needs," said Aaron Cowell, US LEC's president and CEO. "As a result, we've grown our total customer base by more than 46 percent since June of last year. Additionally, we've been very successful in placing value-added services like managed firewall & IP VPN, conferencing and Web hosting with more than 5,000 of our customers now subscribing to at least one of US LEC's data products. This compares to June of 2002 when we reported 2,700 data customers. Data revenues continue to increase as a percentage of revenue and now account for nearly 14 percent of US LEC's total 2003 net revenue year-to- date."

Cowell continued, "All these factors contributed to making last quarter US LEC's second consecutive quarter of positive cash flow. As we continue to excel in providing customers with service that exceeds their expectations, we see more and more customers selecting US LEC to be their preferred communications provider. We look forward to discussing this and other operational successes in more detail during our quarterly conference call on August 5th 2003."

In addition to comprehensive voice packages of local, long distance and other voice services, US LEC provides a full suite of data and Internet services. US LEC's data product suite includes dedicated Internet services (US LECnet), Frame Relay, the recently announced Multi-Link Frame Relay, Managed Firewall & IP/VPN (Internet Protocol/Virtual Private Network), ATM services, Dial-up Internet (US LECnet Dial), DPL (Digital Private Line) and Web hosting. US LEC's advanced data products are designed to be flexible and scalable, with speeds from 64Kb per second to 45 Mb (DS-3) per second. US LEC continues its proven success in bundling data services on a single T-1 along with voice services, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction with cost efficiencies, a single bill for services and a single point of contact for the customer.

About US LEC

Based in Charlotte, NC, US LEC is an integrated telecommunications carrier providing voice, data and Internet services to over 12,000 mid-to-large-sized business customers throughout the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The US LEC network of 26 digital switching centers consists of Lucent 5ESS(R) AnyMedia(TM) digital switches, Lucent CBX500 ATM data switches and Juniper M20(TM) Internet Gateway routers. The US LEC local service area includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia. US LEC also offers selected voice services in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin, in addition to data services in these states and others.

For more information, visit http://www.uslec.com or call 704/319-1135.

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