Bliley Dedicates New Bell Atlantic Facility to Serve Competitors in 14-State Region

Bliley Dedicates New Bell Atlantic Facility to Serve Competitors in 14-State Region

Bell Atlantic Brings 300 New Jobs to Richmond Area

May 22, 2000

RICHMOND, Va. - Bell Atlantic today dedicated a new maintenance center in northern Henrico County that will serve Bell Atlantic's wholesale customers for local exchange services from Maine to the Virginias. When fully staffed later this year, the center will add 300 new jobs to Bell Atlantic's existing workforce of 3,000 in the Greater Richmond area.

The new maintenance center will take repair calls from those phone companies that buy Bell Atlantic's local phone service wholesale and then resell it under their own brands. To date, approximately 350 such companies are operating in Bell Atlantic's 14-state region. Over 100 carriers have been certified by the State Corporation Commission to provide local phone service in Virginia.

"Hats off to Bell Atlantic for choosing Richmond as the location for its repair maintenance facility," said U.S. Rep. Tom Bliley, who participated in the dedication. "Not only will this new center bring scores of jobs to the area, it establishes Bell Atlantic's commitment to greater competition and consumer choice in local phone service."

Robert Woltz, acting president and CEO of Bell Atlantic - Virginia said the new center "typifies the enormous effort we are making to meet the needs of our wholesale customers. We're delighted that the corporation would choose the Old Dominion, and specifically the Richmond area, for this operation."

The newly constructed center is located north of Richmond in the Park Central office complex on Parham Road, just east of I-95. The one-story facility comprises 45,000 square feet. Bell Atlantic has an option to expand that floor space by an additional 8,000 square feet.

The center actually began limited operation April 1 with 23 employees. When fully staffed this summer, it will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bell Atlantic has two similar maintenance centers currently in New Jersey.

Last year Bell Atlantic created 1,000 new jobs to focus strictly on serving local telecommunications carriers.

"The companies that these centers serve are some of our most complex and fastest growing customers," Woltz said. "We will do what it takes to ensure they receive high-quality service."

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With more than 44 million telephone access lines and more than 20 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 23 countries.