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AT&T Enters Four New Markets for Local Residential Phone Service and Extends DSL Service to Three Additional Ones

Posted on: Thursday, 11 December 2003, 06:00 CST

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T today announced that it is entering the Southern California local residential phone market -- offering an alternative to Verizon's customers -- and local markets served by SBC in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas. Additionally, the company extended its DSL service to residential customers in Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Today's announcement fulfills AT&T's commitment to offer or test its local service in 35 states by year-end. The company currently markets local service in 24 states -- representing 61 million households -- and is conducting local service trials in another 11. AT&T currently provides local service to over 3.8 million residential customers. It also offers a package of local, long-distance and DSL service to customers in 11 states.

"Consumers in these 24 states now can reap the benefits of local competition by taking advantage of AT&T's local calling plans," said Kevin Crull, senior vice president, AT&T Consumer. "We're delighted to be able to offer them the ability to choose from a number of local phone service plans that have been designed to meet their communications needs from one of the most respected communications companies in the nation."

AT&T will offer a variety of local and long distance calling plans to residents of Southern California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas that best suit their needs. For example, one of AT&T's most popular plans includes the following for a monthly plan fee ranging from $24.95 to $28.95:

* Unlimited local calling

* A choice of three features, such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, 3-Way

Calling, Call Return or Call Forwarding

* A single, simple-to-read bill for local and long distance calls

* One phone number to call for all customer service needs

For an additional $3.95 per month, customers can bundle their local plan with the long distance calling plan AT&T Local One Rate(R) Plus, and pay just 7 cents a minute for all their domestic, direct-dialed long distance and local toll calls from home.

Residential customers in Southern California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas can also take advantage of AT&T's newest bundled calling plan, AT&T One Rate USA(SM). For a monthly plan fee of $48.95 in Kansas and Oklahoma and $49.95 in Missouri, customers can get their choice of four popular calling features along with unlimited local and long distance voice calls from home within the United States.

Customers who switch their local residential service from Verizon or SBC to AT&T will be able to keep their existing phone number in most cases and AT&T will pay all switching charges.

The DSL offer, which uses a nationwide data network provided by Covad Communications, enables consumers to bundle AT&T's DSL service with other AT&T local and long distance services. The ability to bundle AT&T DSL service is based on a process called line splitting, which involves AT&T "splitting" the loop it buys from the Bells to offer AT&T local, long distance and DSL service on the same line. Line splitting for large volumes of customers is an innovative process that gives consumers more choice for high-speed Internet access.

Consumers can choose the standard AT&T DSL plan for the price of a dial-up Internet connection -- $19.95 a month for the first three months -- and $39.95 a month thereafter. Or, consumers can choose the preferred AT&T DSL plan and enjoy even faster premium speeds. Consumers who choose the preferred plan get a $20 discount off of the regular price for the first three months. The preferred plan is available for $49.95 a month thereafter. Both plans offer consumers the following:

* Significant savings for the first three months

* 20 hours a month of national dial-up Internet access (great for

travelers)

* 30-day money back guarantee

* A free installation kit (a $149 value) that includes a plug-and-play

modem

* Free live tech support

In addition, consumers have the added convenience and simplicity of one-stop shopping and a single bill for their AT&T local, long distance and Internet services.

Installing DSL is simple. In fact, the free self-installation kit won an award because it's very easy to use. With the kit, customers can be up and running in only a few short minutes. And there's no rewiring or drilling required because DSL works on the existing phone line.

AT&T DSL Service includes AT&T Worldnet(R) Service, an award-winning, high-quality ISP. AT&T Worldnet Service has received numerous awards for performance and customer satisfaction and was the first national ISP to provide free anti-virus, anti-spam and pop-up protection as a standard feature of its service.

"Regulators so far have resisted enormous pressure from incumbent monopolies to scuttle federal Telecom Act provisions that are just now allowing us to bring more choice and new services to residential customers," noted Crull. "Consumers win with competition.

"The FCC decision earlier this year found that the existing rules still are necessary for competition to exist. We're banking on regulatory decisions at the state level in the next nine months that will continue policies that allow consumers a competitive choice for local phone service. They will be critical to the future of competition," he added.

In a 2002 J.D. Power and Associates study of residential local telephone service providers, AT&T Consumer ranked highest in local service customer satisfaction among all major carriers with more than one million customers. In fact, the J.D. Power and Associates study showed that AT&T Consumer ranked highest in the quality of its offers, and in its ability to resolve customer problems on the first try.

The study placed AT&T Consumer ahead of 11 other local service providers, behind only smaller Cincinnati Bell, which serves fewer than 700,000 households in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

AT&T also ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among consumers who spend more than $30 per month on long distance calls, according to the 2003 J.D. Power and Associates Residential Long Distance Customer Satisfaction Study.

AT&T provides a wide selection of Business Class DSL services to accommodate the needs of large and small businesses in these same states. AT&T Business DSL offers asymmetric service speeds such as 1.5/384 Kbps and higher symmetric speeds up to 1.5/1.5 Mbs. For more information on AT&T's Business Class DSL services, customers can visit http://www.att.com/business.

To sign up for AT&T residential local service, consumers can call toll-free 1 800 ATT 4 ALL, or for more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.att.com/home. Consumers interested in signing up for AT&T DSL Service can call 1-800-WORLDNET, or visit http://www.att.net/dsl.

About AT&T

For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.

About Covad

Covad is a leading national broadband service provider of high-speed Internet and network access utilizing Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. It offers DSL, T1, managed security, hosting, IP, dial-up services and bundled voice and data services directly through Covad's network and through Internet Service Providers, value-added resellers, telecommunications carriers and affinity groups to small and medium-sized businesses and home users. Covad operates the largest national DSL network with services currently available in 96 of the top Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Covad's network currently covers more than 40 million homes and business and reaches approximately 45 percent of all US homes and businesses. Corporate headquarters is located at 110 Rio Robles San Jose, CA 95134. Telephone: 1-888-GO-COVAD. Web Site: http://www.covad.com/.

AT&T 'Safe Harbor'

The foregoing are "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by and information currently available to management. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside AT&T's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is presented solely to provide additional information to further understand the results of AT&T.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991018/ATT )

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991018/ATT

AT&T

CONTACT: Bob Nersesian, office - +1-973-326-3643, orwireless - +1-908-410-6026, nersesian@att.com

Web site: http://www.att.com/http://www.covad.com/

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