Securities Industry Association and NYNEX announce global connectivity effort for financial community; contract for communications services

NEW YORK CITY -- NYNEX and the Securities Industry Association yesterday announced an effort under which NYNEX will take a leadership role in working with other telephone companies, both foreign and domestic, to ensure that compatible services are available to SIA members in New York and other financial capitals around the world. This will facilitate the creation of a global telecommunications network that provides state-of-the-art voice and data services.

In addition, the SIA announced it has reached agreement with NYNEX on a new contract through 1998 that will enable the SIAs members in New York to upgrade the current NYNEX services they receive to NYNEX Enterprise Service. To date, the company has received written confirmations from SIA members to upgrade some 43,000 lines to Enterprise Service.

NYNEX Enterprise Service is a leading-edge, intelligent private line offering that enables customers in New York to obtain with unprecedented flexibility the ability to reroute traffic in the event of a disaster, increase bandwidth to set up videoconferences, and add new circuits, among other features, in a competitive price package.

Announcements of the global effort and the new contract were made yesterday at the SIAs Information Management Conference and Exhibit at the New York Hilton.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said: New York City is the leading information and financial capital of the world. The importance of the Securities Industry Association and NYNEX effort cannot be understated. This collaboration is exactly the kind of effort we envision to facilitate the creation of a technologically advanced global telecommunications network. The Securities Industry Association has provided successful leadership and direction, serving the business interests of more than 700 securities firms.

The financial community will attest that the complexities of setting up international circuits and networks today are mind-numbing, said John Faccibene, chairman of the SIA New York City Voice and Data Network Consortium. With differences in technology, cultures, time, regulations, to name just a few, our members can spend months setting up a single circuit into a single country. And in a business where wasted seconds can translate into million of dollars of lost opportunity, this is simply unacceptable.

Faccibene added: NYNEX has demonstrated its commitment to serving the needs of the local market. With NYNEX Enterprise Service, the community has already designated the service to meet our requirements in the New York market. This state-of-the-art service represents a critical part of the chain by which we can link New York, the hub of this community, with other significant world financial capitals. With a consortium of world-class players behind the SIA, we are asking NYNEX to take a leadership role to advance the concept of seamless global services for our member firms.

This contract represents a significant milestone in the SIA-NYNEX relationship, said Ward MacKenzie, NYNEX vice president, Business Network Solutions. We accept the SIAs challenge, and are committed to it. But, more important, NYNEX Enterprise Service represents the standard for similar services to be established by other carriers to facilitate seamless global telecommunications for the New York financial community.

The financial industry, through the SIA, has come together to articulate its global needs, he continued. To satisfy the needs of this important customer group, NYNEX is taking a leadership role in a strategic initiative that offers significant growth potential.

NYNEX provides a full range of communications services in the Northeastern United States and selected markets around the world. The company has expertise in telecommunications, cable television, directory publishing, video entertainment, and information network and delivery services.

SIA is the securities industrys trade association, representing the business interests of more than 700 securities firms in North America, which collectively account for about 90 percent of securities firm revenue in the United States.

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.