Nancy Jackson, Illuminet

(360) 493-6235

njackson@illuminetSS7.com

Olympia, Wash. - Signaling between a pair of lluminet's Signal Transfer Points (STPs) in Mattoon, Illinois and Rock Hill, South Carolina was disrupted today because of a fiber facility failure. The problem occurred at approximately 12:45 P.M. Central time. Coincident with the facilities outage, the switching systems connected to these facilities failed. The fiber facilities were restored within 20 minutes but the switching systems remained out of service. The manufacturer of the switching system has been working with Illuminet to restore service and at 3:05 P.M. Central time had restored partial service through Rock Hill, South Carolina.

The signaling network is designed so that either pair of switching systems can accommodate the load of both systems. Work is underway to restore the Mattoon facility. The root cause for the switching outage remains undetermined at this time.

Illuminet is a nationwide provider of Signaling System 7 (SS7) services to the telecommunications industry. The signaling network allows carriers to provide advanced telephone calling features to their customers. The signaling network is comprised of switch systems and signaling links throughout the U.S.

As a result of the failure, a number of telecommunications carriers in the U.S. experienced disruption in service. "Signaling networks are extremely complex interconnected systems," said Roger Moore, president and CEO - Illuminet. "Our network is engineered to meet or exceed industry standards for redundancy. Unfortunately, each of the pair of signaling switches failed and as a result carrier networks were isolated. We are working with our switching manufacturer to determine the root cause of the problem and will take whatever action necessary to prevent a reoccurrence."

Illuminet (www.illuminetss7.com) provides advanced signaling services and enhanced applications, including local number portability, wireless fraud management, SS7 network usage measurement and billing services to more than 1,000 local, interexchange and wireless telecommunications providers throughout North America and in parts of Asia.