Bell Atlantic Federal Systems Awarded FEMA Contract

Bell Atlantic Federal Systems Awarded FEMA Contract

Company to Support Agency's Telecommunications Operations Nationwide

August 8, 1997

WASHINGTON -- Bell Atlantic has been awarded the Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA) Telecommunications Services Contract to

provide telecommunications support to FEMA operations nationwide. The

contract is worth an estimated $11.7 million to Bell Atlantic, with

the company processing well over $60 million in billings. The

single-award contract will run for one year, with four one-year

options.

The company's Federal Systems unit will provide services to support

FEMA's emergency management system, and its day-to-day

telecommunications operations within the United States and all of its

territories.

"Our highly-skilled team has a strong track record of providing

excellent service to FEMA, based on years of supporting their

emergency telecommunications requirements," said Barbara Connor,

president, Bell Atlantic Federal Systems. "We believe our past

performance was the key factor that enabled us to prevail in the

competitive bidding for this contract. We are committed to continuing

to deliver leading-edge solutions at a very competitive price to this

important customer."

Under the contract, the company will provide centralized acquisition,

ordering and coordination of local telecommunications services and

equipment during both non-emergency and disaster conditions throughout

the U.S. and its territories. These products and services include

pagers, cellular phones, dedicated circuits, T-1 lines, satellite

uplinks, and basic telephone lines. Bell Atlantic will also support

day-to-day operations by providing technical implementation and

systems integration services for FEMA's information technology

infrastructure. These services include web page design, nationwide

frame relay network implementation and management, and LAN/WAN (local

area network/wide area network) integration. In addition, Bell

Atlantic will provide FEMA with a single monthly bill, consolidating

an average of 1100 vendor invoices, utilizing the Bell

Atlantic-developed TIMACS billing software.

Bell Atlantic will serve as the network integrator on the FEMA

contract. The company's core team is comprised of three experienced

small businesses: Clara Vista Corp., iris corp, and 1-on-1

Technologies. "We have assembled a highly-qualified project team with

a broad range of expertise to meet our customers' requirements,"

Connor said.

Bell Atlantic has a long history of quick and efficient deployment of

emergency telecommunications services and equipment to help FEMA

respond to natural disasters. These disasters include the northwest

floods in 1996-97, Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, the Northridge, Calif.

earthquake in 1994, the Midwest floods in 1993 and Hurricane Hugo in

1989.

Bell Atlantic is the largest single provider of local

telecommunications services to the federal government and provides

advanced voice, data networking and videoconferencing solutions to

meet the government's communications and information technology needs.

The company provides and maintains a variety of large, complex

telecommunications systems for the Department of Defense, including

the Defense Telecommunication Service - Washington's TEMPO contract.

TEMPO provides the largest Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

system in the world, with a full suite of data networking and

engineering services for network integration.

Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE: BEL) is at the forefront of the new

communications, entertainment and information industry. In the

mid-Atlantic region, Bell Atlantic's local telephone company

subsidiaries are the premier providers 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.