BELL ATLANTIC TO LOWER RATES 15 TO 86% FOR CONSUMER ACCESS TO CYBERSPACE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 1996

BELL ATLANTIC TO LOWER RATES 15 TO 86%
FOR CONSUMER ACCESS TO CYBERSPACE

New Residential ISDN Pricing to Cut Monthly Rates and
Installation Charges
in New Jersey, Delaware,
Pennsylvania and Virginia

ARLINGTON, VA - Consumers soon will be able to get
high-speed access
to cyberspace from home at prices 15 to 86% below current rates for
Bell Atlantic's residential ISDN (Integrated
Services Digital Network)
service as a result of a new usage pricing plan being filed by the
company this week.

New lower prices will be available to Bell Atlantic residential
customers in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia this
summer, pending approval by each state's public utility commission.
Bell Atlantic also plans to file similar ISDN rate reductions for
residential customers in the rest of the company's mid-Atlantic
service area in the near future.

"We're offering a variety of very attractively priced packages to
meet
the needs of Internet users, telecommuters who need access to
corporate computer networks and heavy users of on-line services,"
said
Fred D'Alessio,
Bell Atlantic Consumer Services president.

New pricing plans for monthly residential ISDN service will include
five packages ranging from 20 to 500 hours of B-channel use. The
20-hour package costs $31, a 40% reduction over Bell Atlantic's
current peak rates. The 500-hour package is $120, an 81% reduction
over the company's current peak rates. Peak time is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Off-peak times are evenings and weekends.

For those who need to have an ISDN data connection 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, Bell Atlantic will offer an unlimited ISDN usage
package for $249 monthly. This is an 86% reduction off the current
peak rate.

In addition, consumers who plan to use ISDN for only a few hours a
month will be able to buy measured service for $23.50 monthly plus the
standard usage fee of 2 cents per minute per B channel during peak
hours or 1 cent per minute per B channel during off-peak hours. This
is a reduction of about 15% on current monthly rates. Measured
service will be available to consumers in New Jersey and Virginia.
(See attached chart
for further details.)

With the new pricing plan, the installation charge will be $125, a 25%
reduction off current installation charges for most customers.

"As a strong advocate of pricing that will help create a true mass
market for ISDN, we're pleased that Bell Atlantic is taking this new
pricing initiative to make ISDN more attractive to consumers," said
Charles Fitzgerald, Microsoft* program manager for the Get ISDN for
Microsoft Windows* project. "With the consumer need for higher
bandwidth, ISDN can offer significantly faster access to the Internet
and information for corporate networks."

"It is good news whenever a company lowers prices for advanced
telecommunication services," said Barbara O'Connor, chair of the
Alliance for Public Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based public
interest group that promotes universal access to advanced
telecommunication services. "The goal must be to make these new
services as affordable as possible for all Americans. Bell Atlantic
has responded to customer concerns, and we hope they will continue to
look for strategies to bring advanced technologies to the home user."

The new pricing plans and the monthly rates are
as follows:

Measured - $23.50 plus usage charge
20 hours - $31
60 hours - $45
140 hours - $60
300 hours - $90
500 hours - $120
Unlimited - $249

Customers who use more B-channel time than the package they select
will pay the standard usage fee for the additional time -- 2 cents per
minute per B channel weekdays (peak time) and 1 cent per minute per B
channel at other times (off-peak).

"Our new pricing packages make it possible for consumers to cruise
the
fast lane on the Information Superhighway inexpensively whether they
are browsing the Internet, telecommuting or going on-line," said
Curt
Koeppen, Bell Atlantic vice president - ISDN. "With ISDN, you don't
waste time on lengthy downloading sessions. Consumers who subscribe
to usage-based on-line services will save money every time they go
on-line."

The new ISDN pricing packages will be available only to residential
customers. However, it is anticipated that by late summer, similar
rates will be available to businesses that pay for ISDN service
provided to employees who work from home.

ISDN provides consumers who telecommute, surf the Internet or use
on-line services with a quicker way to transmit and download data,
graphics and images. With additional software and hardware for their
PCs, consumers who telecommute can easily and quickly collaborate on
projects with co-workers in other locations.

ISDN is an all-digital network technology that combines voice, data
and video signals on a single telephone line, and transmits them at
speeds up to 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) - or as high as 500 Kbps
with common compression techniques available in some of the
ISDN-capable equipment. When compared with 14.4 Kbps analog modems,
the increase in speed can be up to nine-fold.

Bell Atlantic offers consumers one-stop shopping for ISDN - from the
initial service order through installation. Consumers who order ISDN
service will need ISDN-capable equipment, called terminal adapters or
ISDN modems, that allow their computers to transmit and receive data
at higher speeds. Bell Atlantic offers several brands of terminal
adapters, including the US Robotics-Bell Atlantic Sportster® ISDN
128K, for prices beginning at $275. Bell Atlantic's prices are
significantly lower than the manufacturers' list prices which begin at
$495. Bell Atlantic also will install for an additional fixed price
the necessary inside wiring and ISDN terminal adapter.

To order or receive information about Bell Atlantic's residential ISDN
service, customers can call the Bell Atlantic InfoSpeed sales,
provisioning and service center at 1-800-204-7332 Monday
through
Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Customers also can send an e-mail
message to isdncin@bell-atl.com. Information also
is available on
Bell Atlantic's residential ISDN home page at
http://www.bell-atl.com/isdn/consumer/.

Bell Atlantic has installed almost 160,000 ISDN lines for business,
government and residential customers throughout its mid-Atlantic
service territory. The company is the largest supplier of local ISDN
access lines in the nation.

Bell Atlantic Corporation (NYSE: BEL) is at the forefront of the new
communications, entertainment and information industry. In the
mid-Atlantic region, the company is the premier provider 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.

####

* Trademark of Microsoft Corp.

Media contact:

Joan Rasmussen, 703-974-8815
joan.m.rasmussen@bell-atl.com