Posted: 10/2002

News Briefs

* PRIMUS Telecommunications Group
Inc. signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp.’s MSN to offer IP
telephony service to the ISP’s instant messenger customers. The service, called
PrimusTalk, allows an MSN Messenger Service user to make a domestic or
international call on his or her computer by clicking on the "Make a Phone
Call" link.

MSN first offered voice calling
through MSN Messenger in July 2000. MSN Messenger service is offered in 26
languages and used around the world by more than 46 million people, a spokesman
said. From July 2000 to May 2001, consumers made about 120 million PC-to-phone
calls, and spent approximately 582 million minutes on online phone calls with
MSN Messenger, the spokesman said.

 * BroadBandBuyer.com is
offering telecom customers an easy way to find new providers to replace failing
ones. The free online service lets customers comparison shop for many different
types of telecom services, such as Internet access, point-to-point, colocation,
managed services, VPN, IP and voice services. Among the carriers represented are
AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., SBC Communications
Inc., BellSouth Corp., SAVVIS Communications Corp., Allegiance Telecom Inc.,
Covad Communications, Epoch Internet, NTT/Verio, NewEdge Networks Inc., MegaPath
Networks Inc., DSL.net Inc., EarthLink Inc., DirecTV Broadband Inc., AT&T
Broadband, and more.

* WavePower.Net Inc. has
agreed to purchase Better Call Home Inc., owners of global marketing
rights to an Internet-based telephone system. The proposed transaction was
expected to become final by Aug. 30. WavePower.Net intends to change its name to
TelcoBlue to better reflect its new core business. It also to effect a 1:5
reverse split of its common shares. The VoIP technology will be marketed as
TelcoBlue at rates 40 percent to 50 percent lower than those charged by many
telephone companies. TelcoBlue users can make telephone calls from PC to PC,
from PC to phone or from phone to phone.

* BroadJump Inc. and Listen.com
have teamed to make it easier for broadband service providers to offer
Listen.com’s Rhapsody digital music subscription to subscribers. Rhapsody offers
subscribers unlimited access to at least 15,000 albums of CD-quality music for
less than $10 per month. As the newest member of the BroadJump ChannelDirect
Program, Listen.com will pre-integrate Rhapsody with BroadJump’s ControlWorks
Activation Edition, a software platform for broadband activation. BroadJump’s
service provider customers can leverage this integration to offer Rhapsody to
subscribers when they are most likely to purchase — at the point of
qualification and installation — and then fulfill the service in an automated
and seamless manner.

Broadband subscribers who select the
Rhapsody service can access at least 200,000 tracks of on-demand music, build
custom radio stations with music from their favorite artists or listen to about
50 stations of professionally programmed Internet radio. Rhapsody is the only
service to provide consumers legal access to music from major labels, including
BMG, EMI Recorded Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and
Warner Music Group. Listen.com also has licensing agreements with at least 75
independent labels.