Bell Atlantic Data Doctors Make House Calls

Bell Atlantic Data Doctors Make House Calls

Site Visits by Bell Atlantic Network Engineers Help Keep
Businesses' Data Networks Healthy

July 15, 1999

NEW YORK -- Bell Atlantic is making good on its promise to deliver an
enhanced set of data network management services, and this time it's
personal.

An innovative new service offered by Bell Atlantic Data Solutions Group
-- Application Performance Profiling Service, or APPS -- features in-
person visits by Bell Atlantic network engineers who will analyze the
performance of business applications that run on any Internet Protocol or
Internetwork Packet Exchange network. These applications include
e-commerce and enterprise resource planning, a software application that
integrates all of a company's business functions such as purchasing, billing
and customer service.

APPS is Bell Atlantic's newest addition to its network management
services line and the first in a series of planned services focused on
business application performance.

"This new offering extends our philosophy of providing customers
with cost-effective, completely managed data services, eliminating the
need for them to invest capital, people and time in managing their data
networks," said Joe Farina, president and chief executive officer of
the Bell Atlantic Data Solutions Group.

The Data Solutions Group is the Bell Atlantic unit that specializes in
providing fully managed data services including the installation,
maintenance and management of data equipment installed at a customer's
location.

"Bell Atlantic is offering one of the first services that enable
businesses to understand the impact applications have on their networks
and provide information to improve an application's performance,"
said Kathryn Weldon, senior analyst for data communications at the
Yankee Group. "As a result, companies will be better able to
achieve the full business benefit of their applications."

APPS offers a snapshot of an application's performance at a given time.
In the fourth quarter of this year Bell Atlantic plans to launch an enhanced
version of APPS that provides round-the-clock monitoring of network
applications. The company expects to expand its line of network
management services to provide additional capabilities early next year.

The Doctor Is In
Bell Atlantic's APPS is analogous to a doctor making a house call. In this
case, Bell Atlantic network engineers meet with a customer to understand
the network's symptoms, gather vital statistics, diagnose the problem,
provide analysis and recommend a solution.

Engineers connect into a client's local area network using a laptop loaded
with the latest application tools. The laptop captures real-time data about
an application's performance including response times and bandwidth
requirements. In addition, engineers can actually pinpoint whether the
problem rests with the customer's desktop, server or network or with the
application itself.

Engineers use the data to predict and troubleshoot application response
times and help reduce the risk of deploying poorly performing applications
on local and wide area networks.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center recently called on Bell
Atlantic to help remedy poor response times experienced with university
applications used by doctors and other healthcare professionals.

"Bell Atlantic's APPS helped us quickly identify the source of the
problem and gave us the information we needed to implement a cost-
effective solution," said Paul Sikora, director of Physician Services
at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "Our applications
are now running without a hitch."

About Bell Atlantic Data Solutions Group
Bell Atlantic Data Solutions Group (DSG) www.ba-dsg.com is dedicated
to providing globally integrated network solutions that seamlessly connect
businesses with their customers, partners and employees. DSG provides
all aspects of data networking from the management and operation of
customer networks and network integration, to network transport and
advanced IP services such as intranets and extranets, virtual private
networks, web hosting and multimedia services.

About Bell Atlantic
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.