la Frontera In the News

Grande Press Release

March 19, 2003

GRANDE COMMUNICATIONS COMPLETES AGREEMENT WITH TXU COMMUNICATIONS

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Mar. 19, 2003 – Grande Communications has closed its deal with TXU Communications to acquire all rights to provide Internet and telephone services to select commercial and residential customers of TXU Communications.

Grande agreed in January 2003 to purchase the rights to provide high-speed Internet, and local and long-distance telephone services to retail accounts previously managed by TXU Communications. Grande's new customers include all commercial and multi-family accounts of the La Frontera real estate development in Round Rock, Texas; nearly 30 up-scale, multi-family residential communities throughout Houston; and approximately 15,000 commercial and residential lines in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin metropolitan markets. Grande also acquired a state-of-the-art DMS-500 Nortel switch in Austin.

"This acquisition allows us to introduce the Grande brand to Texas' largest markets well ahead of schedule while accelerating our progress within our Central Texas markets," said Grande Vice Chairman and CEO William E. Morrow.

Earlier this month, Grande announced the acquisition of approximately 3,000 route miles of fiber throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana from Austin-based C3 Communications, allowing Grande to expand its product and service offering to its retail and wholesale customer base.

The fiber network architecture consists of three SONET rings that serve south Texas; Central Texas and Houston; and Dallas/Fort Worth, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. C3 is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), the top power generator in the United States.

"It's been a busy and lucrative first quarter 2003 for us," said Morrow. "Within one week, we closed on two important acquisitions that significantly and strategically accelerate our growth rate," said Morrow. In July 2000, the company purchased Thrifty Call, an integrated network service provider for wholesale telephony and data, and in June 2002, Grande acquired ClearSource, a similar broadband service provider operating in Corpus Christi, Midland, Odessa and Waco.

About Grande Communications (www.grandecom.com)

Headquartered in San Marcos, Grande Communications is building a ground-up, deep-fiber broadband network to homes and businesses. Grande delivers high-speed Internet, local and long-distance telephone and cable television services over its own advanced broadband network to communities in Texas. Grande's service area for bundled broadband services includes Austin, San Marcos, San Antonio, Waco, Corpus Christi, Midland and Odessa.

Grande's wholesale service division, Grande Networks, serves the integrated communications needs of other service providers and carriers by providing the underlying network products, services and professional support staff for carriers, ISPs, CLECs, VoIPs, ESPs and ASPs through Grande's ATM, voice and data switching platforms and SONET/fiber networks.