Bell Atlantic Offers Discount Plans of 60% and 80% for Business ISDN Service

Bell Atlantic Offers Discount Plans of 60% and 80% for Business ISDN Service

Usage-based Discounts Support Local Teleworking, Internet Access

March 23, 1998

NEW YORK -- Beginning today, discounts of up to 80 percent are
available to businesses using Bell Atlantic's basic Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) service. Initially, the discounts
will be offered in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the
District of Columbia.

Two volume discount packages offer 20 hours or 140 hours of local
circuit switched ISDN B-channel usage each month at block-of-time
rates far below the current 2-cents per minute cost. The plans are
designed to help customers determine the amount of their monthly bill,
whether they use ISDN for occasional Internet, business remote access
or more extensive local teleworking.

"Our new rate packages align with the usage requirements businesses
have, and support part-time and full-time local off-site workers at
great savings over basic ISDN rates," said Walter Sebastian,
director-desktop solutions, Bell Atlantic. "We're giving businesses
an enhancement over analog access at very cost-effective rates."

The discounts cover the Basic Rate Interface (BRI) use of the B
channels for local data traffic only. Voice messages and toll traffic
-- connections beyond the local calling area -- are billed at
prevailing rates. ISDN has two B channels that transmit data at 64
kilobits per second (Kbps) each plus a D channel that carries
signaling for the B channels. The channels can work together or
separately to deliver voice, data, images, or video to phones,
computers and other information age appliances.

The low volume discount package costs $9.60 per month for 20 hours of
usage. The high volume discount package costs $33.60 per month for 140
hours of connection time. Should customers exceed their packaged
allotment in any month, additional minutes are billed at discounted
rates of $.008 per minute of B channel usage for the 20-hour package
and $.004 cents per minute of B channel usage for the 140-hour
package.

For businesses without the discount package, connection time will
continue to be 2 cents per minute per B channel, or 4 cents per minute
when the two B channels are bonded together to deliver 128 Kbps.

"With these pricing options, we're giving our business customers the
option to buy their ISDN usage by the glass, by the bottle or by the
case, depending on their usage habits," said Becky Siman, ISDN product
manager. "When customers use local circuit switched data more than 8
hours per month, the 20-hour low volume discount package it is a better
buy, and when their usage reaches 70 hours per month, the high-volume
program is more cost effective."

Other ISDN pricing remains the same: a basic telephone connection is
required; a basic ISDN charge of approximately $19.50 applies, and
voice and toll calls made over the ISDN circuit are billed at
prevailing tariffed rates. In addition, a $5 subscriber line charge
and a $1.52 line port charge apply.

The discounts are available to all business customers in Virginia,
West Virginia, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania immediately.
The discounts are under consideration by regulators in New Jersey and
Maryland. Bell Atlantic is evaluating similar volume usage discounts
in New York and New England.

"This palette of pricing choices meets our customers' requirements for
predictable pricing for Internet access and for their employees who
work from home," said Chris Pizzirani, product manger-Basic Rate
Interface ISDN. "Businesses that are connected over both B channels,
8 hours a day, 22 work days a month can expect a total ISDN bill of
about $125 for the service and local circuit switched data usage.

"Every worker who becomes more productive through teleworking and
every vehicle kept off the road by remote access to the work place
helps us all," Pizzirani said.

At 128 Kbps, ISDN is about five times faster than a 28.8 kilobit modem
so workers spend less time waiting for information to download. For
example, a two megabyte file that takes 9.3 minutes to download over a
28.8 modem arrives in about 2 minutes using ISDN.

Bell Atlantic is the nation's premier provider of ISDN services with
450,000 ISDN lines in service, more than half the U.S. total. ISDN is
available to more than 90 percent of Bell Atlantic's customer from
Maine to Virginia.

Bell Atlantic - formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX -
is at the forefront of the new communications and information
industry. With 40.5 million telephone access lines and six million
wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier
providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders
in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory
information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's
largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with
operations and investments in 21 countries.

Summary: Basic ISDN Business Rates