Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile Adds Text Messaging To Digital Wireless Service In New York & New Jersey

Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile Adds Text Messaging To Digital Wireless Service In New York & New Jersey

May 8, 1997

Mobile will expand its digital wireless phone service to include
incoming text messages that will appear right on the phone.

Combining the superior sound quality of DigitalChoice^sm
service with the functionality of an alphanumeric pager, the new Text
Messaging service offers customers a flat monthly rate -- $12.99 a
month for PC-based messaging and $24.99 a month for the combined
PC-based and operator-assisted service. There are no per message fees
and no airtime charges.

The service, designed to provide consumers and business people with
short informational messages, will save them time and money. Messages
will be received by customers traveling throughout most of Bell
Atlantic NYNEX Mobile's East Coast service territory, including
Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh.

Callers can send messages to a text messaging customer in two ways.
Callers can simply dial a toll-free number to reach an operator who
keys in a message, or they can use the software package included with
the service to send a message directly from their home or office PC.
There are no airtime or long-distance charges, so customers receive
their messages at no per message cost. Customers are alerted to
incoming messages by audible tones and lights on their digital
wireless phones.

Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile's DigitalChoice phone will store up to 23
messages at one time. When customers travel beyond the DigitalChoice
coverage area or turn their phones off, the system will store their
messages and attempt to deliver them for a full two weeks. The phone
screen will display messages up to 55 characters in length and split a
single message into multiple messages as needed.

Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile is the largest wireless service provider on
the East Coast and the second largest in the United States. The
company owns and operates the most extensive network in the east,
covering 111,000 square miles, and the largest chain of wireless
retail outlets offering a full range of wireless personal
communications services, including voice, data, and paging. Based in
Bedminster, NJ, Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile has 4.6 million customers
and 6,500 employees in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and
through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest. The company was
formed in July, 1995, by combining the cellular operations of Bell
Atlantic Mobile and NYNEX Mobile.