Bell Atlantic Mobile's Single Rate Pricing Popular With Businesses And Consumers Alike

Bell Atlantic Mobile's Single Rate Pricing Popular With Businesses And Consumers Alike

Digital Sales Jump More Than 100% Since Launch of New Plans

December 7, 1998

BEDMINSTER, NJ -- Bell Atlantic Mobile has seen a one hundred percent
increase in its digital customer activations in the three months since the launch of
its popular DigitalChoice SingleRate^sm pricing plans.

The plans, which feature monthly access pricing starting at $39.99 a month, have
proven very popular with consumers, with nearly fifty percent of new SingleRate
subscribers choosing the $59.99 and $39.99 a month plans.

"We've obviously struck a chord with the consumer market," said Jack Plating,
Bell Atlantic Mobile's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Early
results tell us that customers want the quality of digital with the convenience and
simplicity of single rate pricing. Once consumers understand that at this great rate
long distance is included in the bundle of minutes--and there are no roaming
charges--they're seeing this as a unique value in wireless."

High-use and business customers are embracing the plans as well with more than
half of new SingleRate subscribers choosing a SingleRate plan of $99 or higher.

Today, one out of every two new subscribers is choosing digital, bringing Bell
Atlantic Mobile a total of approximately 750,000 digital subscribers. More digital
subscribers means greater revenue growth as well. Bell Atlantic Mobile's digital
customers are averaging 300 minutes of use every month, or three times analog
traffic, and generating twice as much revenue per unit. In addition, the company's
churn rate and per-subscriber costs are among the lowest in the industry.

"We've invested quite a bit of time and money to build the best quality digital
network and carefully manage the migration of new and existing customers to
digital service," said Plating. "This year we expanded our digital network to cover
nearly all the people living in our East Coast territory and DigitalChoice
SingleRate is bringing new subscribers on at a perfect pace."

Unlike other carriers, Bell Atlantic Mobile's SingleRate customers can use their
existing digital handsets or choose from the wide variety of digital phones that Bell
Atlantic Mobile offers. In addition, the company recently introduced the Motorola
StarTAC digital wireless phone to its product line. Weighing just 4.2 ounces, it's
the smallest, sleekest digital phone on the market and switches automatically from
digital to analog areas (dual-mode).

In the New York, Boston, Washington/Baltimore and Pittsburgh markets, Bell
Atlantic Mobile was named leader in overall customer satisfaction among wireless
users, according to the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates 1998 U.S. Wireless
Customer Satisfaction Study^sm.

Bell Atlantic Mobile owns and operates the largest wireless network in the East,
covering 116,000 square miles, and the largest chain of retail outlets devoted
exclusively to wireless voice, data and paging. Based in Bedminster, NJ, Bell
Atlantic Mobile has 5.9 million customers and 7,500 employees from Maine to
Georgia and, through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest. Through its
"Wireless at Work..." community service program, the company uses its
technology to help individuals and communities improve security and emergency
communications. Bell Atlantic Mobile's parent is one of the world's largest
wireless communications companies, with domestic operations in 25 states and
international investments in Mexico, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more
information on Bell Atlantic Mobile visit: www.bam.com; on global operations
visit: www.bellatlantic.com/worldwide.