WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., March 18, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- New Rochelle Telephone, a provider of local and long-distance telephone service, and Habitat for Humanity of Westchester ("HFH"), the organization that provides affordable housing to people in need, today announced a "Use Your Phone . . . Build a Home" program, where customers of New Rochelle Telephone can automatically donate a percentage of their monthly payments for phone services to support HFH.
Jim Killoran, Executive Director of HFH, stated, "We are very pleased with this agreement with New Rochelle Telephone. They have been our local telephone service provider for more than a year, and we know from experience that they are a quality provider. We rely heavily on contributions from local businesses to fund our housing projects in Westchester, and we anticipate that this program will be a wonderful annuity to our organization and will greatly benefit those in need of affordable housing."
"There are approximately 80,000 families in Westchester who live in substandard housing," noted New Rochelle Telephone's CEO, Paul Riss. "I have seen great volunteer staffs working with HFH to build, paint and organize, but HFH also needs cash contributions if it is going to succeed in its mission. We are happy to be a part of the cash donations that HFH can rely on."
Riss continued, "We have several calling plans to choose from which are priced at substantial savings to similar plans offered by Verizon, AT&T and MCI. If we can sign up 1,000 new customers under this arrangement with HFH, we project that we will be donating approximately $88,000 to HFH each year, which is enough cash to build a home that will appraise for $250,000 to $300,000. We are very excited about this relationship that allows our customers to save money and support a great cause at the same time. Our goal is to have enough customers on this program to build a house in 2005. We have set up 1-888-BUILD 05 as our toll free number to call and sign up for the 'Use Your Phone . . . Build a Home' program."
Habitat for Humanity of Westchester is building affordable homes in several locations throughout the county, such as Greenburgh, Larchmont, Mount Vernon, Ossining, Peekskill, Portchester and Yonkers. Families participating in the project receive an interest-free mortgage on their home, with no cash down payment, and they contribute 500 hours of sweat equity in the construction of the home. Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates in more than 3,000 communities in 92 nations have built and sold more than 150,000 homes to partner families with no-profit, zero-interest mortgages. For more information on how to help Habitat of Humanity of Westchester, visit their website at www.habitatwc.org.
New Rochelle Telephone Corp. is a competitive local exchange carrier that is taking advantage of the convergence of the current and future competitive technological and regulatory developments in the telecommunications industry. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of eLEC Communications Corp. (OTCBB:ELEC) and offers small businesses and residential customers an integrated set of telecommunications products and services, including local exchange, local access, domestic and international long-distance telephone, and a full suite of features including items such as three-way calling, call waiting and voice mail. www.newroctel.com
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. eLEC's actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, among others, certain risks and uncertainties over which the company may have no control. For further discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the discussions contained in eLEC's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the year ended November 30, 2003 and any subsequent SEC filings.