Press Release

Midwest Wireless Customers Hit Home With Help of 611 and RANGER Wireless Solutions®

MANKATO, Minn., Feb 12, 2004 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- For regional wireless provider Midwest Wireless, the personalized service customers receive when calling into the company's customer service center has always been a major selling point. While the center does have an 800 number, most customers connect to it airtime free by dialing 611 on their wireless phone. However, until recently, customers could only access this feature within the Midwest Wireless licensed service area.

Thanks to a new service from RANGER Wireless Solutions(R) called "Home Customer Care¨", Midwest Wireless customers traveling virtually anywhere throughout the U.S. who dial 611 on their wireless phone will now be directed to the Midwest Wireless customer service center at the company's headquarters in Mankato, Minnesota.

Wireless providers, including Midwest Wireless, commonly partner with other providers to make it possible for their customers to use their wireless phones beyond the borders of the company's own licensed service area. As a result of these partnerships, Midwest Wireless is able to focus on providing exceptional service quality within its own licensed service area (encompassing much of Iowa, Minnesota and part of Wisconsin), and at the same time offer its customers the ability to use their phone when they travel outside this area.

However, in the past when Midwest Wireless customers traveling in these areas dialed 611, they were actually connected with the partnering provider's customer service center or heard a recorded announcement instructing them to call their service provider directly. "As a company that strives to answer our customers' needs by giving them personalized ongoing customer service, the fact that they haven't been able to directly connect to our customer service center with 611 when they travel has been a real source of frustration for Midwest Wireless," said Tom Riley, Vice President of Customer Operations.

"We have one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry and believe one of the major reasons customers choose to stay with us is because of the service we provide to them after the sale," said Riley. "With live, knowledgeable individuals answering every call that comes into our customer service center, we have particularly high customer satisfaction in this area," said Riley. "The service offered by RANGER¨ that enables our customers to connect directly to our own customer service center wherever they may be will definitely help further our already strong customer service effort."

About RANGER Wireless Solutions

Headquartered in Holland, MI, RANGER Wireless Solutions¨ serves the cellular phone industry by providing 611/*611 customer service access for participating carriers to their customers nationwide.

RANGER¨ has been in business since 1993, and serves five of the top ten cellular carriers and handles more than two million domestic and international calls per month. RANGER¨ developed the patented technology behind Home Customer Care¨, the application for seamlessly routing cellular users dialing 611/*611 airtime free to the home customer service center of their own participating cellular provider.


About Midwest Wireless

Based in Mankato, Minnesota, Midwest Wireless is a leading regional wireless services provider with more than 350,000 customers in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. With a company-wide focus on customer satisfaction, Midwest Wireless has one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry. Midwest Wireless shows its commitment to answering to its customers' needs by continually investing in its strong service network, providing exceptional customer service at all levels and delivering advanced services that meet the specific communication needs of those living in the Midwest region. These services include ClearlyDigital and Realm wireless phone services and ClearWave Mobile, which delivers mobile Internet access on phones and wireless devices at speeds up to 70K. The company also offers ClearWave High-Speed Wireless Internet, a fixed wireless broadband service that delivers high-speed internet access to homes and businesses at speeds ranging from 256K to 1.5M. More information on Midwest Wireless is available at midwestwireless.com .

SOURCE Midwest Wireless

Ned Timmer of RANGER Wireless Solutions, +1-616-399-9505,
ntimmer@rangerwireless.com ; or Shelly John of Midwest Wireless,
+1-507-327-2376, shelly.john@midwestwireless.com