NYNEX plans some one million lines ISDN deployment by year 2000

NEW YORK -- NYNEX announced today the company is near final agreement with Northern Telecom (Nortel) and completing negotiations with AT&T Network Systems for ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) hardware and software. Once finalized these multi-year arrangements would be valued at several hundred million dollars and include the deployment of some one million lines over the next five years.

This is a significant step toward making NYNEX's entire network ISDN capable by 1997 and represents NYNEX's ongoing commitment to provide its customers with state-of-the-art telecommunications technology.

Under the terms of these agreements, Nortel and AT&T Network Systems would provide ISDN hardware and software equipment in NYNEX central offices, as well as in remote switches. As a result, ISDN provisioning will be faster, simpler and for many NYNEX customers, even cheaper and more widely available than it is right now.

"The demand for ISDN has been growing exponentially. In fact, in New York State there has been a 100 percent increase in demand year over year since 1992," says Roy Ray, director--switched services, ISDN Product Management. "These arrangements are just part of a number of initiatives NYNEX has taken recently to serve our customers better and position us to face imminent competition."

In gearing up for the increased demand this year, NYNEX has:

- Implemented a 1-800-GET-ISDN number, which provides customers with immediate pricing, availability and application information, averaging 150 calls a day throughout the region.

- Opened an ISDN center in New York that provides a single point of contact for ISDN orders and maintenance, similar to the one that already exists in Boston for the New England states.

- Joined with other regional phone companies and customer premise equipment providers to develop standardized order codes to simplify the ordering process for ISDN.

- Dedicated significant resources to training customer service representatives in ISDN order-taking as well as answering applications questions. Each NYNEX business office has ISDN specialists, who can handle even the most complicated ISDN orders.

- Focused on the ISDN residence market by forming a task force that will concentrate on developing applications geared toward that segment.

- Announced two initiatives that utilize ISDN for full-color, face-to-face videoconferencing kiosks with Nobody Beats the Wiz electronics stores and Aegis Technologies, which focuses on the banking and financial services industries.

ISDN is a telecommunications technology that allows high-speed, simultaneous transmission of integrated voice, data, images and video over a single telephone line. Customers can use ISDN for teleconferencing, document sharing, telecommuting and faster access to the Internet. Virtual ISDN means NYNEX reroutes ISDN service from a central office equipped with ISDN to one that is not. Virtual ISDN is a more expensive and complex serving arrangement than local ISDN. When the terms of these agreements are met, all NYNEX customers will be served on a local basis.

NYNEX is a global communications and media company that provides a full range of services in the northeastern United States and high-growth markets around the world, including the United Kingdom, Thailand, Gibraltar, Greece, Indonesia, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The Corporation is a leader in the telecommunications, wireless communications, cable television, directory publishing and entertainment and information services.