Wireless Text Messaging Service Sales Surge at Bell Atlantic Mobile

May 6, 1999—GREENVILLE, SC—

The number of Carolina customers choosing
Bell Atlantic Mobile's text messaging service has tripled since its February
introduction, according to Jerry Fountain, vice president of Bell Atlantic
Mobile's Southeast region. "Our customers are obviously seeing the value
in receiving short email-like messages on their digital phones, " Fountain
said. "Customers are using this service to simplify communications with
work and family. With text messaging and a digital phone, many of our
customers can eliminate carrying a pager." Choosing from three text messaging
options - Internet, PC-based software and operator dispatch, Bell Atlantic
Mobile DigitalChoice® customers subscribing to this service can have time-sensitive
messages displayed on their digital phone screens anywhere in the company's
Southeast digital coverage area. "Text messaging lets our Bell Atlantic
Mobile customers in North Carolina and South Carolina receive short messages
- like meeting reminders and schedule changes - speeding up communications
and improving productivity," said Fountain. "Text messaging is the next
logical step in wireless phone technology, taking advantage of our company's
superior wireless network and increasingly sophisticated handsets."

For $5.99 a month, customers choosing the Internet text messaging option
can receive messages up to 120 characters in length from senders using
email or Bell Atlantic Mobile's web site at www.bam.com, without using
any of the allotted minutes provided under their DigitalChoice price plan.
Text messages include a time and date stamp and are stored for up to two
weeks. If a message is sent to a wireless phone while it's engaged in
a call, outside the digital coverage area or turned off, the message is
stored and the user is notified when they complete their call, return
to the digital coverage area or turn on the phone. Bell Atlantic Mobile
also offers text messaging PC-based software that broadcasts messages
up to 500 characters in length to customized group distribution lists
via personal computer. The cost of this option, which includes Internet
text messaging, is a one-time $24.99 software purchase and $9.99 a month
for each digital phone user receiving messages. The software also features
delivery confirmation and an expanded address book for an unlimited number
of text messaging addresses. Bell Atlantic Mobile also offers an operator
dispatch option, which includes Internet text messaging, for $19.99 a
month. This service provides toll-free access to a live operator 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year, who transmits text messages up to 600 characters
in length directly to the customer's digital wireless phone, where they
can be stored up to 30 days. "With these three options - Internet, PC-based
software and operator dispatch - text messaging can be used by wireless
customers with a wide variety of needs," said Fountain. "But all receive
the benefits of immediate visual messages while on the road or away from
the home or office."

Editor's Note: 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, N.J., Bell Atlantic Mobile
has 6.4 million customers and 8,000 employees from Maine to Georgia, and
through a 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 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.

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