Charlotte Homeless Shelters to Receive 49 Wireless Voice Mail Boxes from Bell Atlantic Mobile

Charlotte Homeless Shelters to Receive 49 Wireless Voice Mail
Boxes from Bell Atlantic Mobile

HopeLine® Helps 113 Shelter Residents Get Jobs and Find
Housing This Year

July 19, 1999

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- During the last six months, more than 113
residents of the Charlotte Emergency Housing and Community Link
homeless shelters have used Bell Atlantic Mobile's HopeLine® wireless
voice mail boxes to secure employment, find housing and contact social
service organizations. Responding to the high demand for more voice mail
boxes, Bell Atlantic Mobile is donating an additional 49 voice mail boxes
to the organizations, the second such donation this year in Charlotte.

The HopeLine voice mail boxes are donated through "Wireless at
Work...", Bell Atlantic Mobile's community service program, and
gives shelter residents without access to a personal phone line a single
point of contact for communicating with family, child care and healthcare
providers, and prospective employers and landlords.

Community Link has received 34 additional Bell Atlantic Mobile wireless
voice mail boxes, adding to the 54 donated by the company in the Spring.
"These voice mail boxes are a great tool for our clients to use in
their search for employment and permanent housing," said Shelia
Corey, social worker for Community Link. "More than 80 clients at
our shelter have used the service during the last six months."

Charlotte Emergency Housing now has 33 wireless voice mail boxes,
adding to the 18 previously donated.

"HopeLine answers a specific need at our shelter -- providing our
clients a direct link wirelessly to the outside world," said Thelma
Reynolds, resident services coordinator at Charlotte Emergency Housing.
"Once we saw just how the voice mail boxes helped our clients find
jobs and housing, it was clear that additional ones were needed."

"Providing the extra HopeLine wireless voice mail boxes is an
integral part of the company's overall commitment to applying wireless
technology solutions to help those most in need," said Jerry
Fountain, vice president of Bell Atlantic Mobile's Southeast region.

Since Bell Atlantic Mobile's HopeLine program was established in 1995,
the company has donated almost 600 wireless voice mail boxes to 28
social service organizations in North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia, valued at more than $68,000. By having a voice mail box with a
personalized greeting, clients have a private phone number they can give
to parents, other family members, medical personnel and potential
landlords and employers with whom they need to maintain contact and
avoid the misperceptions associated with living at a shelter.

The shelters will administer and monitor the voice mail program, training
clients how to use the service. No special equipment is required to use
HopeLine, which can be accessed through the organization's regular
telephone system or any landline or wireless phone.

Bell Atlantic Mobile owns and operates the largest wireless network in the East,
covering 120,000 square miles, and the largest chain of retail outlets devoted
exclusively to wireless voice, data, and paging. Based in Bedminster, NJ, Bell
Atlantic Mobile has 6.4 million customers and 8,000 employees from Maine to
Georgia and, through a separate subsidiary, in the Southwest. Through its
"Wireless at Work.." community service program, the company
uses its technology to help individuals and communities improve security and
emergency communications. Bell Atlantic Mobile's parent, Bell Atlantic
Corporation (NYSE:BEL) is one of the world's largest wireless communications
companies, with domestic operations in 25 states and international investments in
Mexico, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more information on Bell Atlantic
Mobile visit: www.bam.com; on global operations visit:
www.bellatlantic.com/worldwide.