Winstar Racks Up Four More MAA Contracts
By Matt Paolucci

Yesterday afternoon, Winstar Communications Inc. (WCII) announced it was awarded four additional Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) contracts from the General Services Administration's (GSA) Federal Technology Service (FTS).

Winstar Communications, Inc. (Winstar) provides businesses with broadband services. WCII offers its services across its own 6,000 mile end-to-end broadband network in 60 major markets in the United States, including each of the top 30 U.S. markets. The Company also offers services in 20 overseas markets, including Amsterdam, Brussels, Buenos Aires and Tokyo.

"With MAA awards in markets throughout the country, we are beginning to demonstrate the breadth and significance of Winstar's widely available broadband network," said William J. Rouhana, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Winstar. "These substantial contract wins reflect the ability of Winstar's Large Account Solutions business to serve government and private business customers of any magnitude."

Under the four separate contracts, Winstar was selected as an eligible provider of data and local switched voice services, as well as dedicated transmission services, to government users in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Miami and St. Louis. Each four-year contract includes four additional one-year options.

The total value of these awards is up to $1.04 billion over eight years for the approved companies.

The deal with Atlanta is valued at up to $520 million. In Indianapolis, WCII's contract could be worth as much as $240 million. In Miami, Winstar will share a contract valued at up to $140 million. And in the contract with St. Louis, WCII will share a contract valued at up to $140 million.

Just last month, Winstar received three MAA contracts to supply voice and data services to federal government users in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Those awards have a combined potential value of $620 million. All previous awards had been made to incumbent local exchange carriers or AT&T.

"Within the last five weeks, Winstar has received a total of seven long-term contracts from the federal government with a potential total value in excess of $1.6 billion," said Robert McGuire, president of Winstar's Large Account Solutions group. "In the course of vying for these awards, Winstar has successfully competed with incumbent local exchange carriers from a variety of regions."

Wall Street seems to be a big advocate of Winstar. Of the nineteen analysts who cover shares of WCII, all but 1 have Strong Buy or Moderate Buy ratings. Also, per-share loss figures for WCII have been trimmed recently. For fiscal 2000 and 2001, estimates are for losses of $11.31 and $9.48, respectively.

Revenues, which have grown 94 percent annually since 1995, are forecast to continue at a more modest 30 percent for the next five years.

New York-based Winstar is scheduled to report earnings May 4th. Estimates are for a loss of $2.81 per share.