Bell Atlantic Plays to Win in Atlantic City

Bell Atlantic Plays to Win in Atlantic City

Claridge Hotel and Casino Integrates Property Management, Call Center and Phone Services Using CasinoNet^sm

June 17, 1998

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Bell Atlantic is betting heavy on Atlantic City.
CasinoNet is the company's new suite of services, rich in features and
functions designed into it by hotel/casino operators themselves to provide
superior guest communications services and property management tools.

CasinoNet encompasses voice services, operator services, guest and
administrative voice messaging which are integrated with the hotel's
property management function to create a dynamic communications
system.

Last night, the Claridge Hotel and Casino began using a new management
information system (MIS) which is integrated with Bell Atlantic's 5 ESS
Centrex Automated Call Distributor (ACD), allowing the Claridge to track
and log various types of calls to help manage the casino/hotel property.

"CasinoNet is designed to the specifications of our Atlantic City hotel
customers," said Rich Amman, Bell Atlantic vice president of product line
management-access, toll and central office services. "The service is
tailored and priced to outpace the competition. The call center
management information system is a key element."

The call center service at the Claridge uses a new MIS platform developed
by Perimeter Technology of Manchester, NH. Perimeter is a leader in
Centrex-based call center technology for Nortel DMS-100 switching
systems. With this installation, Perimeter is introducing a system which
operates with a Lucent Technologies 5 ESS switch.

"This call center enhancement is part of a new suite of call center products
Bell Atlantic is offering to meet demand for call center versatility in many
diverse business settings, bundled in this instance with the CasinoNet
package," said Peter Callaghan, Bell Atlantic product manager for call
centers.

The core of CasinoNet Service is a digital 5 ESS central office switch with
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) capability. Litespan* 2000
digital loop carrier systems riding over Synchronized Optical NETwork
(SONET) feeders deployed across the city link other hotel properties with
the service to form an extremely reliable sub-network that will ultimately
enable a shared voice messaging system. Using the current Bell Atlantic
voice messaging systems, a convention exhibitor could, for example, send
voice messages to lists of guests staying at all the CasinoNet hotels.

The Claridge is the fourth hotel/casino property to subscribe to CasinoNet
service. The others are Bally's Park Place, The Atlantic City Hilton and
Bally's Wild Wild West.

"CasinoNet is Bell Atlantic's competitive response in this thriving market,"
said Ginger Garvey, Bell Atlantic CasinoNet product manager. "It
positions us to provide a very reliable and feature-packed service that we
think will be extremely popular in the hospitality industry."

* Litespan is a registered trademark of DSC Communications Corp.

Bell Atlantic -- formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX --
is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry.
With more than 41 million telephone access lines and 6.7 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
22 countries.