Bell Atlantic Mobile Teams Up With Dress For Success to Help Low-Income Women Land Jobs

Bell Atlantic Mobile Teams Up With Dress For Success to Help Low-Income Women Land Jobs

Company Sponsors Suit Drive, Gives 25% Discount to Donors and
Offers Free Voice Mail Service to Shelters

April 22, 1997

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. -- To expand its commitment to fight domestic
violence, Bell Atlantic Mobile today will kick off a two-week drive to
collect women's business suits at its five Manhattan Communications
Stores and offer donors a 25 percent discount on the purchase of
wireless phones and accessories. The suits will be collected until
May 1, 1998 on behalf of Dress for Success^TM New York which has
outfitted more than 1,000 low-income women in interview appropriate
suits to help them look professional and land jobs.

Bell Atlantic Mobile also will offer HopeLine® wireless voice mail
service, free of charge, to the network of transitional shelters and
agencies that refer clients to Dress for Success. In addition, the
company's human resources experts will host job skills seminars based
on clients' needs and a wireless phone with a $250 service credit will
be donated to Dress for Success.

"Working with Dress for Success to help women rebuild their lives is a
logical next-step for Bell Atlantic Mobile," said Julie Dobson,
president of the company's New York/New Jersey metro region. "During
the past two years, we've dedicated significant resources to assisting
victims of domestic violence, both financially and through wireless
technology. Supporting the outstanding work being done by Dress for
Success broadens our commitment to help improve women's lives that have
been shattered by domestic violence."

Dobson said the company, during the past 18 months, has donated more
than 400 wireless phones, programmed to dial 9-1-1 at the touch of a
button, to put victims of domestic violence in immediate contact with
police. Since 1995, the company has donated thousands of 9-1-1 phones
throughout its territory to victims of domestic violence. Also, some
20 homeless and battered women's shelters throughout the NY/NJ metro
area use Bell Atlantic Mobile's HopeLine, a wireless voice mail
service that provides a confidential number that victims can leave
with prospective employers and landlords when searching for jobs and
housing.

Dress for Success is the brainchild of Nancy Lublin, who used a $5,000
inheritance from her great grandfather to found the organization that
is making a tremendous difference in the lives of New York women in
need.

"Getting dressed for an interview can be a nightmare," Lublin said,
"Think about what it's like for someone living in a battered women's
or homeless shelter. How can you pull yourself up by your bootstraps
if you don't own boots?"

Clean, women's business suits -- on hangers -- may be brought to Bell
Atlantic Mobile Communications Stores at the following Manhattan
locations, 310 Madison Avenue, 100 Wall Street, 139 Fifth Avenue, 2268
Broadway and 1266 3rd Avenue.

Bell Atlantic Mobile is the largest wireless service provider on the
East Coast and the third largest in the United States. The company
owns and operates the most extensive network in the East, covering
111,000 square miles, and the largest chain of wireless retail outlets
offering a full range of wireless personal communications services,
including voice, data and paging. Based in Bedminster, NJ, Bell
Atlantic Mobile has more than 5 million customers and 7,000 employees
in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and -- through a separate
subsidiary -- the Southwest. Through its "Wireless at Work..."
community relations program, which includes HopeLine voice mail
service, Bell Atlantic Mobile uses its wireless technology to help
individuals and communities improve security and emergency
communications.