SURW Surewest Communications (MM)

ROSEVILLE, Calif., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Leading independent communications holding company SureWest Communications (NASDAQ:SURW) and its President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Oldham were honored in the January 2, 2009 issue of the Sacramento Business Journal when Oldham was named one of four finalists for the Sacramento region's 2008 Executive of the Year. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050908/SFSUREWESTLOGO) Oldham was noted in the Business Journal's Executive of the Year feature for his leadership during SureWest's successful transformation from a 95-year-old traditional telephone company to an advanced and cutting-edge broadband company delivering superior television, high-speed Internet and telephone services to residential and commercial customers in the greater Sacramento and Kansas City regions. In the feature, Oldham, Tom Meuser, Jonna Ward and Todd Wille were all named as finalists, with Meuser recognized as Executive of the Year. In 2008, Oldham spearheaded significant corporate transactions to position SureWest as a growth-oriented broadband company. In February of 2008, SureWest acquired Kansas City-based Everest Broadband, Inc. for $173 million and followed that by announcing the sale of the operating assets of its non-core Wireless business for an aggregate cash purchase price of $69.0 million and its more than 50 owned wireless communications towers for a price in the range of $9.5 to $10.2 million. Additionally, in 2007 under Oldham's guidance, SureWest sold the assets of its non-core Directory Publishing business for an aggregate cash purchase price of $110.0 million. "This honor speaks to the hard work and dedication of our outstanding employees in both Sacramento and Kansas City," Oldham said. "Throughout our 95 year history, SureWest has had to constantly reinvent itself in an effort to grow and add new customers while keeping current customers satisfied. Today, we are working from a position of financial strength and can deliver the highest performing broadband network to our customers in the markets we serve due to the significant efforts of our employees. SureWest team members continue to enhance our current products while rolling out new and exciting services with a core focus on constantly improving and delivering best-in-class customer service." In 2008, for the first time in the company's history, SureWest's Broadband segment revenues exceeded its Telecom revenues. SureWest also reached an historic milestone during the year by delivering service to its 100,000th broadband customer. The company continues to focus on growing its broadband business and recently announced it will decrease its fiber-to-the-home build in an effort to free up cash for potential broadband network acquisitions in 2009. "In recent years, rather than borrow additional funds, we have chosen to sell assets that were not core to our business growth and redeploy those funds into growing and building our advanced network," said Oldham. "The reason we are scaling our network build in 2009 is that we believe many assets around the country are undervalued due to the current economy. As a result, we've made the decision to free up cash in an effort to acquire additional network assets and expand our broadband footprint. We believe we can do this much faster and more economically in today's market through acquisition compared to network build." Oldham joined SureWest's Board of Directors in January 2004, serving until he was named president and CEO of SureWest on January 1, 2006 following the retirement of former president and CEO Brian Strom. While a member of the board, he served as chair of the SureWest Audit Committee from June 2004 through December 2005. He currently serves as vice chairman for the United States Telecom Association, whose 18 members represent over 800 companies across the U.S. About SureWest SureWest Communications (http://www.surewest.com/) is one of the nation's leading integrated communications providers and is the bandwidth leader in the markets it serves. Headquartered in Northern California for more than 90 years, the company expanded into the Kansas City region in February 2008 with the acquisition of Everest Broadband, Inc. and offers bundled residential and commercial services that include IP-based digital and high-definition television, high-speed Internet, Voice over IP, and local and long distance telephone. Its fiber-to-the-premise IP-based network in the Sacramento region features the fastest symmetrical Internet speeds in the nation at up to 50 Mbps. In its Kansas City market (http://www.surewestkc.com/), 75 percent of the company's customers subscribe to at least three services. Contact: Ron Rogers Corporate Communications 916-746-3123 http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050908/SFSUREWESTLOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: SureWest Communications CONTACT: Ron Rogers, Corporate Communications of SureWest Communications, +1-916-746-3123, Web site: http://www.surewest.com/ http://www.surewestkc.com/

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