The spinoff of Alltels wireline division, and the product of a merger with VALOR Telecom of Irving, Texas, is making its debut to the competitive carrier market at this falls COMPTEL PLUS Convention and EXPO.

Windstream Communications (Booth 314), based in Little Rock, Ark., is a new name but its roots run deep as a key provider of voice, broadband and digital TV services for rural America.

Some of the companys divisions have served their communities for 120 years.

We are investing for the future with our network infrastructure, said Don Wilborne, vice president of business sales. We are focused on keeping pace with technology and our line-up includes Ethernet transport, MPLS and VPN services to meet the everchanging communication needs of our customers.

With 8,000 employees, Windstream serves 3.4 million residential and business customer lines in 16 states Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas. The company also is working with developers to bring fiber optics into new homes in several states this year.

Annual revenue totals approximately $3.4 billion. Windstream is listed on the Standard & Poors 500 Index and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WIN.

We believe our customers are better served by a company completely focused on providing advanced local communications and entertainment products and services, said Jeff Gardner, president and CEO. We are an exciting company with extraordinarily talented people with the potential to change an industry.

Windstreams James Taylor, sales manager for wholesale business sales, and Sandra Sawyer of product and campaign management, will be on hand at COMPTEL to talk with attendees.

Whether its customer premises equipment, or voice and IP/data services, our focus is on making mid-size, small and semirural communities competitive and successful in todays expanding global economy, said Taylor.

Windstream Communications www.windstream.com