OAKHURST, California - Sierra Tel Internet, a Sierra Tel Communications Group Company, announced today that digital subscriber line (DSL) technology allowing for high-speed Internet service is now operational in Oakhurst, Bass Lake, Coarsegold, Yosemite Lakes Park, Raymond, Boot Jack, and Mariposa. Additional locations are forthcoming. Check the DSL coverage map (Figure 1) to see if DSL is currently available in your area.

Utilizing the most universal network medium in the world, copper wire, STI's DSL delivers broadband speeds over your existing telephone line. Partnering Sierra Telephone's copper wire and DSL technology with STI's state-of-the art equipment brings high-speed Internet access to the mountain-area.

According to TeleChoice's DSL Deployment Summary, the United States had just over 3.8 million DSL lines in service at the end of the third quarter of 2001. Mike Harian, manager of Sierra Tel Internet, said, providing DSL enables "local residents to benefit from an exciting and emergent technology."

STI's DSL service is a high-speed, complementary service to another STI offering-GigaSkyNet wireless. STI's wireless high-speed connection is also available in the mountain area to those with a line of sight to the GigaSkyNet transmission towers.

With DSL speeds that range from 128 Kbps to 768 Kbps and GigaSkyNet wireless speeds that average from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps with bursts up to 5 Mbps, STI provides you with unprecedented performance and reliability for all of today's bandwidth-intensive applications and business networks.

To sign up for service or to check DSL availability in your area, visit www.sti.net/dslprequal.html or call STI at 559-683-7600 or 1-877-638-7787. For more detailed DSL information, visit http://www.sti.net/intdsl.html. Once you have been cleared for DSL service, a Sierra Telephone technician will come to your home or business to make minor adjustments to your outside connection and to test your inside wiring. Once the wiring is completed and tested, you may either come to STI to pick up your equipment and install it yourself; or for a $100 fee, an STI installer will come to your home or business and connect the equipment for you.

If you are interested in high-speed wireless broadband, STI will conduct a free site survey to ensure that wireless service is available at your location. To be added to the site survey list, submit the reservation form available at www.gigaskynet.com or call STI at 559-683-7600 or 1-877-638-7787.

DSL and GigaSkyNet wireless high-speed Internet services are available to business and residential customers. Both high-speed services start at $49 per month for residential users. The broadband business packages start at $129. In addition, the DSL setup fee of $100 is waived indefinitely. STI requires that DSL and wireless subscribers contract for a minimum one-year term upon first signing up for high-speed broadband service. With the one-year contract with GigaSkyNet wireless, standard setup is free.

David Wolin, Oakhurst resident, elected to install his DSL equipment. Wolin said, "The equipment was easy to install. The manual [provided by STI] helped. I just followed the directions. It was simple and the software worked smoothly." Wolin added that with his previous dial-up account the fastest speed he experienced was 45.3 Kbps. Now, he has his incoming traffic arriving at 384 Kbps and his outbound traffic departing at 128 Kbps. Wolin said, "The connection speed is great. I am now looking at videos that took too long to download with my dial-up account."

As one of our first beta testers, David Hurst said he is "very pleased with everyone's attention to ensure that it works correctly." Hurst previously had an ISDN line and he said his 384 Kbps/128 Kbps service "is much better and faster."

Coarsegold resident Matthew Genesi, said, "DSL is great and I am happy with the service. He added that he "most definitely notices a difference" between DSL and his previous dial-up service. As an added bonus, with STI's broadband services (DSL and multiple-user wireless account), everyone in your home or office network can get on the Internet at the same time. Genesi said he also likes DSL because he is able to connect his 10, networked computers to his DSL line.

Tim Fruehe, president of Simply Smashing, Inc., and a GigaSkyNet subscriber said, "Our unique combination of Mac's and PC's on the same server posed no problems for the STI installation crew who not only performed a fast, clean installation, but also had all computers online the same afternoon. Now everyone is online all day; and downloading big art files takes seconds. Thanks STI for a job well done!"

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