Axiom Capital Corporation Believes Regional Bells Face Tighter Credit Constraints In Wake Of SEC Probes

With the SEC probing into the Baby Bells accounting practices, many questions remain as to how those outcomes will effect their ability to refinance existing debt.

Phoenix - April 15, 2002 - Axiom Capital Corporation believes many of the regional phone companies will face difficulties in refinancing their debt in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commissions recent probes into questionable accounting practices.

Many telecommunications carriers typically exchanged access with each other, known as SWAPS. The SEC had announced investigations into that practice as to how they booked that kind transaction with concerns over their showing it as revenue to boost their yearend sales and earnings.

Worldcom was being probed by the SEC over SWAPS and now Qwest has been included. Qwest was the more aggressive telecommunications carrier in the use of SWAPS and was subpoenaed by the SEC in order to examine their records.

In the wake of these probes by Federal Authorities, Qwest's inclusion couldn't have come at a worse time than now, in consideration of its pending refinancing with Bank of America.

Axiom Capital Corporation, Phoenix Arizona, believes that Qwest will face tough times in convincing its creditors that there were no improprieties in its accounting practices and that while Qwest's timing may hard pressed for refinancing, many of the telecom carriers are finding themselves in the same situation as Qwest.

Eric Stevenson, President of Axiom Capital Corporation said, "As the Telco's raced to build out their national backbones and upgrade their systems to manage their customers growing bandwidth demands, all of them were incurring massive debt."

Stevenson went on to say,"Worldcom and Quest both need to be cleared by the SEC in their accounting practices probes. Some liken it to a witch hunt on the part of the regulators, but irregardless of that, all of these carriers are facing crushing debt while Wall Street remains on the sidelines.

We're hard pressed to believe that banks would consider refinancing in the wake of these investigations as any adjustments to revenue or earnings could effect their decisions."

About Axiom Capital Corporation
Axiom is a financial corporate development firm headquarted in Phoenix Arizona that specializes in merger and acquisition transactions with publicly held corporations. Founded in 1992, Axiom is considered the leading corporate development firm in the United States and has worked extensively with communications businesses in merger, acquisition and financing in recent years.

About Eric Stevenson
Eric is considered one of the nations leading management analysts and is extensively followed by some of the major financial publications in the United States for his opinions on M&A matters, most recently with Dow Jones over the HP/Compaq merger.

Contact: Axiom Capital Corporation
         Eric Stevenson, President
         Ph: 602-277-9065
         estevenson@axiomcapital.net
         http://www.axiomcapital.net