Eau Claire, WI - December 27, 2001 - Wisconsin Independent Network™, LLC, (WIN™) announced the completion of a SONET network through western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota today.

"This is a 543 mile, fully redundant OC-48 ring with POPs in La Crosse, Rochester, Winona and Eau Claire, plus POP sites in seven smaller communities in rural Wisconsin and Minnesota," said Scott Hoffmann, Executive Director of WIN.

Each of these POP sites has full add-drop capabilities from DS1 to OC-12, including 10/100 BaseT Ethernet. "I am thrilled with the completion of this ring," said Hoffmann. "This network has operated as a folded-ring over the past year. While we had no service-impacting event on this ring, the self-healing nature of a fully redundant open ring allows us to offer the highest level of service reliability available to our customers. The completion of this ring also strengthens our position as a regional telecommunications carrier in Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota."