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Businesses, Residents and Visitors to Benefit from High-Speed Wireless Internet CLINTON, Miss. and LEXINGTON, Ky., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MCI, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:MCIP) SkyTel unit today introduced UnpluggedCity(SM) wireless broadband services for businesses, residents and visitors in Lexington, Kentucky, as part of a SkyTel pilot program to test Wi-Fi service in various markets. Under a cooperative agreement with the city, SkyTel has designed and built a Wi-Fi "hot zone" that it will own and manage to immediately deliver this innovative new service in Lexington's downtown area. "People are increasingly looking for new ways to stay connected," said Bruce Deer, SkyTel president. "UnpluggedCity combines SkyTel's expertise delivering wireless mobility products with MCI's IP network to offer advanced, easy-to-use Internet connectivity to Lexington's downtown community." "Wi-Fi is a cutting edge technology that will make Lexington even more attractive to young professionals and potential employers," said Lexington Mayor Teresa Ann Isaac. "I'm excited that SkyTel has selected Lexington for this project to achieve another big step in the revitalization of downtown Lexington by going wireless." UnpluggedCity offerings, available by visiting http://www.unpluggedcity.com/ or by calling 1-800-815-9544, include pay-as-you-go service to longer term contracts for businesses and residents. UnpluggedCity Enterprise -- with monthly rates at $575 (plus $999 installation) -- meets the larger bandwidth demands of businesses as an alternative or backup to T1 service, with speeds of up to 6 Mb per second. UnpluggedCity Residential Wireless Broadband provides in-home Internet service at $24.99 a month and UnpluggedCity Small Business Wireless Broadband has a monthly rate of $69.99 a month. Both of these services provide Internet access speeds of up to 3 Mb per second (twice as fast as standard DSL service and approximately 75 times faster than standard dial-up) with purchase of a "modem" to relay Wi-Fi signals into homes and business structures. SkyTel is offering attractive discounts on these services and modems for a limited time. Unplugged Traveler offers instant broadband access to visitors with Wi-Fi- enabled laptops or handhelds from locations within the UnpluggedCity network for $5.99 an hour, $9.99 a day and $24.99 a month. Lexington is the first market where SkyTel is rolling out commercial Wi-Fi service. SkyTel's expertise operating wireless data networks for both business as usual and "business unusual" make it ideally suited to offer this innovative new service throughout downtown Lexington. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, SkyTel moved quickly to deploy emergency wireless Internet networks in storm-ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi in support of relief efforts. About SkyTel SkyTel, a leading supplier of wireless data and messaging services, provides wireless internet access, wireless e-mail, interactive two-way messaging, wireless telemetry services, automatic vehicle location (AVL) products and traditional text and numeric paging to customers throughout the U.S. For additional information, go to http://www.skytel.com/. About MCI, Inc. MCI, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIP) is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. With one of the most expansive global IP backbones and wholly-owned data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market. For more information, go to http://www.mci.com/. DATASOURCE: MCI, Inc. CONTACT: Stefanie Scott, MCI Media Relations, 1-800-644-NEWS Web site: http://www.mci.com/ http://www.unpluggedcity.com/ http://www.skytel.com/

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