Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile to expand cellular long-distance calling to its entire service area

BEDMINSTER, NJ -- With the President's approval of the telecommunications act today, Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile will begin expanding its cellular long distance calling service to its more than three million customers. Beginning in March, customers in each of the company's markets can receive all of their cellular services, local and long distance, from the industry's wireless leader.

Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile, the largest wireless carrier on the East Coast, was the first Bell-affiliated cellular company to offer long distance service. Since last Fall, the company has provided cellular long distance calling services in greater New York and Connecticut as a result of a court waiver granted last year. The expanded cellular long distance service will be available to more than 55 million potential customers in Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile's service area.

"The wireless access ramp to the Information Highway is now wide open. For cellular consumers, this historic law means they can get `one-stop shopping' for all of their wireless communications needs, whether they are calling around the corner or across the country," said Dennis Strigl, president and CEO of Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile. "For starters, we're poised to offer regional and national calling plans to cellular customers throughout our footprint."

Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile currently provides a wide range of wireless voice, data, and paging communications services throughout the East Coast, with coverage from Maine to South Carolina, and in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas through a subsidiary. The new law permits Bell-affiliated cellular carriers to market wireless long distance service without court permission. As a result, Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile customers will see:

• A range of cost-effective, flexible calling plans offering local, regional and national calling plans based on customers' calling needs.
• Simple, convenient billing and reliable service systems to support these calling packages.
• Wireless data services that meet customers' needs for all kinds of data applications, from e-mail access to Internet surfing to interactive data base inquiries. For the first time, national accounts can have data applications to meet their needs to access and transmit data wirelessly across any geography.
• The new law also permits the more efficient configuration of the company's cellular network, which will result in more enhancements, greater geographic reach and greater value for wireless services overall.

"Now we can maximize the freedom provided by the new legislation to create plans that give our cellular customers the best possible rates for the best possible seamless local and long distance services," Strigl said.

As a joint venture of two Regional Bell Operating Companies, Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile was prohibited from offering long distance and other services that its parents were barred from offering. This new legislation opens opportunities for all companies competing in the marketplace, and creates the most positive landscape yet for consumers looking for complete service and pricing packages.

Editor's note: With more than three million customers, Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile is the largest wireless service provider on the East Coast and the second largest provider in the US. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, the company offers a full range of wireless voice, data, and paging communications solutions to its three million customers in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and, through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest. Formed in July 1995 through the combination of Bell Atlantic Mobile's and NYNEX Mobile's cellular operations, the company has more than 5,000 employees.

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.

FAX copies of recent NYNEX news releases are available free of charge, 24 hours a day. Call 1-800-331-1214 and an automated system will provide instructions.