Bell Atlantic's CALL54sm Service Enables Northern Virginians to Get Names and Addresses Using Phone Numbers

Bell Atlantic's CALL54^sm Service Enables
Northern Virginians
to Get Names and Addresses Using Phone
Numbers

'Reverse Directory' Service is Powerful Tool
for Consumers, Businesses

June 15, 1999

ARLINGTON, Va. -- In an era when fast, easy access to information is
solving problems for more and more people, Bell Atlantic is introducing a
"reverse directory" service that provides names, addresses and
zip codes to callers who have only the phone number.

The new Bell Atlantic CALL54 Service -- available now in Northern
Virginia -- is designed to assist consumers in verifying addresses of people
who have moved, verifying call details on billing statements, and locating
businesses.

"Many of our customers already use other sources to get this kind of
information and thousands of others have expressed a need for an easy,
accurate reverse directory service," said LeAnn Trimpey, CALL54
product manager at Bell Atlantic. "This kind of information can be
found on the Internet, CD-ROMs, '900' services and paper 'criss-cross'
directories, available in most libraries. But, with CALL54, all you need is
a telephone."

To use CALL54 Service, customers dial their own three-digit area code
plus 555-5454. They will hear an automated voice that offers instructions
on using the service. When they enter an area code and telephone number,
a computer-generated voice speaks the name, address and zip code of the
individual or business to whom the phone number is assigned. Callers can
press "1" to repeat the listing, "2" to have the
name spelled or "3" to have the address spelled.

Each call costs 75 cents and callers can request information on three phone
numbers per call. Names and addresses of both Northern Virginia and
metropolitan Maryland customers are available. Washington, D.C.,
listings are not yet available, pending introduction of the service.

CALL54 Service was introduced by Bell Atlantic in New Jersey in 1995
and in West Virginia and Maryland last year. It has become extremely
popular with businesses and residential customers in all areas where the
service is offered. In Virginia, the service is being offered initially in the
suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Bell Atlantic customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia have
reported no problems resulting from this automated reverse directory
service. Virginia residents concerned about privacy may remove their
information from the CALL54 database any time at no charge by calling
an automated "opt-out" service at 877-678-6887.

Customers with non-published listings need not call. Their numbers are
automatically excluded from the database. Customers who have already
requested that their listings be excluded based on a bill insert circulated
recently need not call again. Women's shelters and other agencies where
personal safety is an issue also have been excluded from the database.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and
information industry. With 43 million telephone access lines and nine
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 23 countries.