NRTC and Cannon Technologies Announce Strategic Alliance

Herndon, Virginia, April 28, 2003 - The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), which delivers telecommunications and information technology solutions to rural communities, and Cannon Technologies, a leading utility power management solutions provider, have signed a letter of intent.

NRTC and Cannon Technologies, through a contractual agreement, will provide rural electric cooperatives with new options for their Automated Meter Reading (AMR), distribution automation, and load management system needs.

"Our alliance with Cannon Technologies will be significant," said Mike Pristas, NRTC's vice president of Utility Solutions. "Cannon Technologies offers the best in class power line carrier AMR solution in the industry and the Yukon™ software platform which is the most diverse utility application software platform we have seen to date. They are focused on the key applications in the electric co-op utility market and provide our members with a valuable choice for a complete AMR system implementation."

The Cannon Technologies EMETCON™ power line carrier AMR system features two-way communication, load profiles, power failure tracking, and remote disconnect options. The Cannon Technologies PLC-based AMR system can read a meter in less than six seconds.

The full suite of Cannon Technologies utility solutions products will be available through NRTC to its members upon final agreement. Cannon Technologies' offerings include a pager-based load management system, a pager-based water heater control, and the ExpressStat®, a Honeywell/Cannon Internet controllable thermostat that can be remotely controlled by the utility via pager and by the consumer via a standard browser. Cannon Technologies also offers voltage monitoring and control, capacitor controls, and an array of distribution automation controls. Also available is Esubstation.com, a predictive maintenance and operations tool, which can be deployed on the Cannon Technologies Yukon™ platform.

"We are very excited about the potential of teaming with NRTC," said Ed Cannon, president of Cannon Technologies. "Our Yukon™ Software was developed to be a platform to allow electric co-ops to monitor and control loads and distributed generation, and to move the information to the people who need it most: operations, metering, engineering, billing, and most importantly, the customer. By Web-enabling these applications and supporting popular third-party vendors for metering and RTUs, we strive to provide open solutions for today and tomorrow that fit the needs of our customers."

Cannon Technologies (www.cannontech.com) is a privately owned energy technology company with fifteen years of profitable growth. Cannon has consistently maintained support for every piece of equipment and software made or sold, and has continued to deliver leading edge applications in the utility industry. With headquarters in Minnesota and divisions in Iowa and North Dakota, they have consistently grown by over 25% per year and serve over 300 utilities nationwide. Their focus on customer support is an integral part of their long-time dedication to delivering end-to-end solutions, and then backing up the installation with end-to-end support.

NRTC (www.nrtc.org) supports more than 1,000 rural utilities and their communities by delivering telecommunications solutions such as product research and development, technical support, marketing assistance, regional support, and an industry voice. NRTC's members serve more than 20 million customers in areas of the country that have been un-served or under-served by traditional utilities and other businesses.