In a joint statement, Larry E. Sevier, chief executive officer and general manager of Rural Telephone and Nex-Tech, and Gerald Washburn, general manager of Golden Belt Telephone, announced an alliance with Sprint to expand wireless services throughout western Kansas and part of eastern Colorado. The alliance between Nex-Tech Wireless, Inc. (a partnership between Golden Belt Telephone Co., Rush Center and Nex-Tech, Inc., Hays) and Wireless Co, L.P., a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, will not only expand Sprint's wireless footprint in Kansas, it will also permit Nex-Tech Wireless to expand wireless services through this partnership. The announcement was made May 25, at a press conference following a ribbon cutting at Nex-Tech Wireless' new Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO), 3001 New Way in Hays.

"With this strategic roaming agreement with Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint is expanding its geographic footprint for its customers, creating seamless service in western Kansas and eastern Colorado," said Bennett Gamel, director of business development, Sprint. "Once the Nex-Tech Wireless network is constructed, when Sprint wireless customers travel to the territory covered by this network, not only will their CDMA phone work to make voice calls, but all of the other features, such as Sprint PCS Vision, will also work on the Nex-Tech Wireless network."

As part of the alliance, Nex-Tech Wireless has purchased spectrum that will allow it to overlay the landline system of Golden Belt Telephone, Rural Telephone, Nex-Tech and S&T Telephone throughout western Kansas and along Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado. This will provide wireless customers with the most complete coverage in western Kansas.

"We are very excited about our partnership with Sprint and what it means to our customers. Our nationwide voice and data roaming arrangement with Sprint permits Nex-Tech Wireless' customers to have access to Sprint's network, which is one of the largest all-digital, nationwide PCS wireless networks in the United States," said Sevier.

As a part of the project, Nex-Tech Wireless will build or lease over 100 PCS tower sites in western Kansas and Eastern Colorado. The first launch phase is expected to begin in August of this year. "For the first time," said Sevier and Washburn, "we will be able to offer full-scale wireless services to all of our members and customers throughout western Kansas, a goal of the Board of Trustees for many years. Rural Telephone has been providing communication services since 1951 and Golden Belt since 1953. This is a truly historic event for us, and we are excited to be able to provide this innovation to all of our members."

George K. Baum Advisors, LLC, is Sprint's exclusive agent in the Strategic Roaming Alliance program, and it has played a key role in facilitating the agreement.

Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech is a multi-service technology and telecommunications company that offers an array of products and services including local and long distance telephone service, dial-up and broadband Internet, ISP services, web development, cable television, directory services, media productions, mobile radio/paging services and business telephone systems to its more than 30,000 customers/members across 22 Kansas counties. More information is available at www.ruraltelephone.com, and www.nex-tech.com.

Golden Belt is also a multi-service telecommunications company that offers an array of products and services including local and long distance telephone service, dial-up and broadband Internet, cable television, business telephone systems and alarm systems to its more than 6,000 customers/members across 11 Kansas counties. Further information is available on Golden Belt's website at www.gbta.net.

Sprint offers an extensive range of innovative communication products and solutions, including global IP, wireless, local and multi-product bundles. A Fortune 100 company with more than $27 billion in annual revenues in 2004, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-digital fiber-optic network, an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone, and one of the largest 100 percent digital nationwide wireless networks in the United States. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/mr.

Date: 5/24/05

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