CLEC People - June 21, 2001

Covad Communications (Nasdaq:COVD) announced that the Board of Directors will name Charles E. Hoffman as Covad's new president and chief executive officer, effective June 25, 2001. At that time, Frank Marshall will resign as the interim CEO and will remain on Covad's Board of Directors as vice chairman. Hoffman will actively work with Frank Marshall and Chuck McMinn, Covad's chairman, to lead the senior management team and provide strategic direction, oversee Covad's relationship with the financial community, and manage day-to-day operations. Most recently, Hoffman served as president, CEO and director of Rogers Wireless Communications Inc., Canada's largest wireless communications services provider. Under his direction and leadership, changes in marketing, distribution, sales, billing, customer care and network expansion drove the growth of the company from the number four provider to the largest provider in Canada with over three million subscribers. In the past two years, he raised over a billion dollars through a private debt offering and a strategic equity offering. Prior to Rogers Wireless, Hoffman spent two years as president of the Northeast region for Sprint PCS, where he helped build the nationwide wireless carrier, which was a start-up company owned by Sprint, TCI, Comcast, and Cox Communications. Before joining Sprint PCS, he spent 16 years at Southwestern Bell (SBC) in various senior positions, including regional manager, general manager, and vice president and general manager. As Cellular One's president and general manager for several East Coast regions, Hoffman managed to turn around the second and fourth largest SBC markets, Boston and Washington/Baltimore, from underperformers to market leaders within record time. He also gained extensive global telecom experience as managing director of wireless for SBC International and director general for Telcel, the largest nationwide wireless carrier in Mexico. Earlier in his career, Hoffman spent several years in sales and marketing at SBC and IBM. He is currently on the Board of Directors for Wysdom Inc., Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and Cibernet, Inc.

DSL.net, Inc. (NASDAQ NM: DSLN) announced the recent election of David F. Struwas, chairman and chief executive officer, to the executive committee of the Association of Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS). An accomplished telecommunications executive with over 15 years of senior-level experience, Struwas joined DSL.net in August 1998 and was named President and Chief Executive Officer in November 1998. He was appointed Chairman in November 2000.

Eschelon Telecom, Inc., an Integrated Communications Provider (ICP) of voice, data and Internet services, announced that Cliff D. Williams, Eschelon's Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, has been named 2001 Entrepreneur of the Year in the Emerging Companies category as part of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Program for the region.

Z-Tel Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ/NM:ZTEL), a provider of advanced, local and long distance phone services to residential customers, announced that Buford H. Ortale has resigned from the company's Board of Directors for personal reasons. Ortale, who has served on the company's Board since July 1998, also served on its Compensation and Audit Committees. Andrew Cowen will fill the Board seat vacancy created by Ortale. Cowen is with Brown Brothers Harriman, whose 1818 Fund III invested $50 million in Z-Tel in December 2000 through the purchase of the company's Series E preferred stock. Cowen joined Brown Brothers Harriman in 1992 and serves as a Senior Vice President in its private equity group. He is primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investments on behalf of The 1818 Funds, a family of private equity partnerships managed by Brown Brothers Harriman, and monitoring the performance of portfolio companies. Cowen currently serves as a Director of U.S. Unwired, Global Japan and Computerized Medical Systems. Cowen graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Bowdoin College and received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the company announced the resignation of John Hutchens from his employment with Z-Tel. Hutchens joined the company in September 1999 and served as its Chief Financial Officer. The Board of Directors has chosen Horace J. Davis, III to fill the position. Mr. Davis has served as Senior Vice President-Budgeting and Financial Planning for Z-Tel since January 2001. Prior to that time, Mr. Davis served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President-Planning for Touch 1 Communications, Inc., which Z-Tel acquired in April of 2000. Davis received a B.B.A. and an M.B.A from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.

Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACW), a provider of integrated communications services to business customers and Internet service providers (ISPs) in the western U.S., today announced its appointment of Henry R. Carabelli as president and chief operating officer. Wally Griffin, Pac-West's current president and CEO, will retain his position as CEO and serve as chairman of Pac-West's board of directors. Griffin will continue to lead the company and guide its expansion with direct responsibility over corporate strategy, business development, investor relations, human resources, regulatory affairs, and finance and accounting. Carabelli will oversee Pac-West's day-to-day operations, maintaining the company's strong focus on profitability, customer service, network reliability, and providing a unique and compelling value proposition to its customers -- the ability to obtain their telecom hardware and network services from a single provider on a single bill. He will directly oversee customer operations, network operations, information technologies, and sales and marketing. Formerly the COO of ICG, a Colorado-based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), and President of @Link Networks, a broadband service provider, Carabelli brings over 24 years of telecom experience to Pac-West. He joined ICG in 1996 as executive vice president of network operations, and served as chief operating officer from 1998 to 1999 with responsibility over network engineering, customer care, sales, and installation. Carabelli helped guide ICG's transformation from a competitive access provider to a competitive local exchange carrier, and its transition from a wholesale to a retail business.

Z-Tel Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:ZTEL) announced the addition of two executives to its senior management team. Thomas M. Koutsky has joined Z-Tel as Vice President of Law and Public Policy, bringing over seven years of experience in the communications regulatory and public policy arena. Most recently, he was the Assistant General Counsel of Covad Communications Company, a leading competitive provider of DSL services, for which he established and developed a successful Washington, D.C. advocacy and regulatory presence. Koutsky also served as a Senior Attorney for the Federal Communications Commission's Competition Division, where he participated in policy proceedings and several key decisions after passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. At Z-Tel, Koutsky will be responsible for formulating and articulating Z-Tel's regulatory and public policy agenda before the FCC, Congress, and state commissions, so as to create a policy environment in which Z-Tel can profitably grow and expand its entry in the local telecommunications market. Greg M. Brueland has joined Z-Tel as Vice President of Credit, Fraud & Collections. Brueland has over 24 years of credit and collections management, strategy and policy development and implementation experience. Brueland spent seven years at AT&T Universal Card Services, where he successfully handled a number of assignments including credit policy, collections & recovery and strategic planning & analysis. Brueland's role at Z-Tel will be to formulate and execute effective risk management strategies and processes to ensure the integrity and scalability of the company's credit processing, fraud detection and collection efforts. Additionally, the company announced that Jeff Kupor, General Counsel, has been appointed Secretary of the company, and Dumas Garrett, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and acting Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed Treasurer. Former Secretary and Treasurer, Mark Johnson, has assumed the position of Director of Affiliate Marketing. Z-Tel also announced that Sarah Bialk has been promoted to Director of Investor Relations.

Z-Tel Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:ZTEL) signed former professional football player and coach Mike Ditka as its company spokesperson. Z-Tel selected Ditka as a spokesperson primarily because of his strong presence in the Chicago area, a market that the company believes offers Z-Tel significant growth potential. Ditka is perhaps best known for his successful years as head coach of the Chicago Bears during the 1980s and for the Bears' win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. Early this summer, the company plans to launch an integrated advertising campaign in Chicago featuring Ditka, which will include radio, print, outdoor and Internet advertising. The company intends that this initial campaign will be the first leg of a larger scale program; Z-Tel will track results in Chicago and measure the campaign's overall success to determine the strategy for expanding it beyond Chicago.