Bell Atlantic Renews Commitment to WORLD SCHOOL for 1996

February 14, 1996

BELL ATLANTIC AWARDS MORE THAN $58,000 IN LATEST ROUND
OF WORLD SCHOOL GRANTS

Company renews $100,000 commitment for
1996

CHARLESTON, WV - Seventeen teachers from 13 West Virginia public
schools will use $58,255 in grants from the Bell Atlantic® WORLD
SCHOOL(sm) Grant Program to help their students
tap the vast resources
of the Internet. Each project will use the Internet to provide
students and others with hands-on learning experiences that reach far
beyond the borders of the state.

Bell Atlantic also announced today that it will fund the WORLD SCHOOL
Grant Program with $100,000 in 1996, the second year of the program.

"This latest round of grant winners continues what is becoming a
tradition of teachers' innovation in melding technology into the
classroom," said Dennis Bone, Bell Atlantic-West Virginia president
and CEO. "As a business person and a parent, I'm delighted at the
creativity that West Virginia's teachers bring to their jobs."

The WORLD SCHOOL Grant Program is designed to encourage West Virginia
educators to creatively integrate telecommunications technology and
collaborative learning into classrooms using the Internet. With these
latest grants, Bell Atlantic-West Virginia has awarded more than
$80,000 in grants to 24 teachers at 20 schools.

New grant winners include:

• Carol O'Conner, Harts High School -- $6,000 for a science
  education
  program that pairs students with science and aviation mentors via
  e-mail and the Internet. The student/mentor teams will build model
  airplanes and learn about the science of flight.

• Christine Richards, Doddridge County High School, West Union
  --
  $4,670 for equipment that will enable the school to train student
  groups to become effective seekers of information using cooperative
  learning and technology.

• Connie Hays, Holz Elementary School, Charleston -- $3,088.80
  for
  four projects: a fourth-grade West Virginia Capitol project; a
  fifth-grade project that analyzes information gathered from a local
  cemetery; a sixth-grade project on space exploration, and a joint
  fourth-sixth grade project in which the students will produce a home
  page site for "Project Home in West Virginia," an earlier
  WORLD
  SCHOOL Grant Program project.

• Mary Jane Williams, Richwood High School -- $7,605 to assist
  in the
  establishment of technology centers that will provide technical
  support to students and teachers in using the Internet and related
  technologies.

• Dennis Gallon, Carol Townsend and Vicki Wilson, North
  Elementary
  School, Morgantown -- $3,654 for a liquid crystal display
  [LCD]
  projection panel that will assist a teacher in training groups of
  students on how to use the Internet as a research and communications
  tool. Students will use the Internet to research particular
  cultures and communicate with electronic "key pals" through
  e-mail.

• Julian Hatcher, Ripley Middle School -- $3,845 for equipment
  that
  will assist a teacher in training groups of students on how to use
  the Internet as a research and communications tool.

• Janice Magro and Carol Trythall, Cass Elementary School, Osage
  --
  $7,823.50 to help equip the school's library with resources needed
  to train teachers, administrators and parents in the uses of
  technology for learning. Students will use technology and the
  Internet to locate network resources for their research on class
  projects.

• Susy Calvert, Betsy Way Childers and Joseph McBride, Woodrow
  Wilson
  High School and Maxwell Hill Gifted Center, Beckley -- $5,283.75
  for
  a project that uses videoconferencing among elementary, high school
  and college level students to teach and learn foreign languages.
  The students also will collaboratively design and create multimedia
  units that use the target languages and incorporate all
  participants' images and voices.

• Tom Gray, Man Junior High School -- $4,500 to
  establish
  "TriadelphiaNet," a virtual academic community of the seven
  schools
  in Logan County's Triadelphia school district. These schools will
  use the WORLD SCHOOL network to address issues such as K-12
  curriculum development, student testing and analysis, at-risk
  student and peer counseling, and community involvement in public
  education problem solving.

• Sharon Malone, Kingwood Elementary School -- $4,005 for
  equipment
  that will help provide group instruction to students, teachers,
  parents and community partners.

• Nora Collett and Mary Lou Robertson, Keyser Primary/Middle
  School
  and Frankfort Middle School in Ridgeley -- $7,780 for a project
  in
  which eighth-grade students from both schools will work together to
  develop analytical writing skills. Using word processing programs
  in the school's computer labs, e-mail and teleconferencing, the
  students will develop creative writing techniques based on the
  styles of their favorite authors.

More on the WORLD SCHOOL Grant Program

The WORLD SCHOOL Grant Program complements the Bell Atlantic WORLD
SCHOOL project, through which the company is offering direct,
high-speed digital Internet access to more than 700 kindergarten
through twelfth-grade public schools in its West Virginia service area
by the end of 1996. More than 150 schools now have WORLD SCHOOL
Internet access, but teachers in all public schools served by Bell
Atlantic-West Virginia are eligible to submit grant applications.

The company awards individual grants up to $10,000. A panel of
education leaders and Bell Atlantic employees judge all grant
proposals. Grant money cannot be used to purchase tariffed telephone
services or computer hardware.

Bell Atlantic will award grants on an ongoing basis; the deadline to
submit applications for the 1996 grant cycle is Dec. 6. Interested
educators can obtain grant applications from the Bell Atlantic-West
Virginia public relations department by calling 1-800-642-8206.

Bell Atlantic Corporation (NYSE: BEL) is at the forefront of the new
communications, entertainment and information industry. In the
mid-Atlantic region, the company is the premier provider of local
telecommunications and advanced services. Globally, it is one of the
largest investors in the high-growth wireless communication
marketplace. Bell Atlantic also owns a substantial interest in
Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and is actively developing
high-growth national and international business opportunities in all
phases of the industry.

####

for more information, contact:

Harry Mitchell, 304-344-7562
harry.j.mitchell@bell-atl.com