HOUSTON -Oct. 15, 2003 - NextiraOne, LLC, a Platinum Equity company, has selected Charles Copeland, Jr. to serve as Senior Vice President in charge of Service Operations. In this position, Copeland has overall responsibility for the company's operations and customer care organizations. He will use his more than 25 years of Fortune 500 company leadership experience to guide initiatives that will maintain and strengthen NextiraOne's customer-centric focus.

Copeland has extensive industry experience leading large teams and managing multi-million dollar budgets. Prior to NextiraOne, he served as regional vice president of operations for SBC Telecom. As one of the founding members of the executive management team at SBC Telecom, Copeland was directly involved in the development and deployment of the company's national voice and data network. Copeland received his undergraduate degree in Business Management from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.

"Charles brings a great deal of industry experience to the NextiraOne management team," said President and CEO Michael Ruley. "Under his leadership, we expect NextiraOne's operations and customer care organizations to thrive and enjoy many new successes."

About NextiraOne
Headquartered in Houston and Paris, NextiraOne is a client-focused provider of communications solutions and managed services. With nearly $2 billion in revenues and over 9,000 employees worldwide, NextiraOne plans, implements and manages voice, data and converged communications solutions for enterprise and general business clients. NextiraOne offers an extensive portfolio of technical and product expertise, including focus on key client segments, and provides best-in-class technologies from strategic partners. For more information, please visit www.NextiraOne.com. NextiraOne is owned by Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com), a global acquisition firm specializing in the strategic operation of mission-critical services and solutions businesses according to a unique M&A&O^SM model of value creation.

Contact:

Sadie McCrary
Media Relations Representative
M/C/C for NextiraOne
972-480-8383 ext. 222
Sadie_McCrary@mccom.com

For NextiraOne:
Shannon DeYoung
Director, Marketing
713-307-4743
Shannon.DeYoung@NextiraOne.com