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As Hurricane Season Heats Up, AT&T Inc. Helps Customers Prepare

Posted on: Monday, 28 August 2006, 09:00 CDT

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- After the worst hurricane season on record last year and with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting an above-average season, people in coastal areas need to be prepared. The Atlantic hurricane season increases in intensity in late August and September, making it critical that people plan ahead in order to keep their families safe and their businesses secure.

AT&T has created two sets of practical tips to help Americans plan ahead for hurricanes or other natural disasters. Two lists follow this release:

-- A consumer-focused checklist to help homeowners get their households and families prepared for an emergency -- A business-focused checklist that gives businesses the information they need to ensure that their operations will not be interrupted in an emergency

"When it matters most -- during the most trying times -- AT&T has always focused on helping its customers stay connected," said Brendan Floyd, AT&T regional vice president. "For our residential customers, this means being able to reach families and loved ones. For our business customers, large and small, it means ensuring that data is safe and that from a communications standpoint things return to normal as quickly as possible."

Making Sure Families Are Prepared

Since communication is a priority during any emergency situation, AT&T urges families to develop and rehearse their own communications plans to keep in touch in the event of a crisis. AT&T has created AT&T Vital Connections ( http://www.att.com/vitalconnections ), a Web site that offers tips and resources to help families stay connected during emergencies.

Whether family members are at work or school, at home or geographically separated, AT&T reminds consumers to be AWARE -- Always Watchful, Alert and Ready in an Emergency -- with tips for using the phone during and after the storm and for developing an emergency communications plan. (More details are included on the attached tip sheet.)

Securing Businesses Secures the Economy

AT&T manages some of the world's largest and most complex networks for businesses worldwide and has built an unsurpassed understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery operations. AT&T recommends that all businesses develop and implement a business continuity plan to ensure the safety and security of their operations and their employees. As seen during Hurricane Katrina, many businesses were permanently displaced and valuable data and information lost. An effective business continuity plan can help protect a company from potential financial loss.

Business continuity plans should address recovery and restoration activities, internal communications requirements and priorities, as well as communication links with other offices, business interfaces and customers. To help ensure the protection of critical assets, processes and services, management should develop and implement a holistic business continuity and recovery strategy. (Tips for businesses can be found on the attached sheet.)

AT&T Prepares Network for Stability During the Storm

"No matter what the weather is, people rely on their phones and Internet connections," said Brendan Floyd. "Service continuity is the bedrock principle that we follow as a company. This commitment is never more evident than during a hurricane, winter storm or other disaster when the phone and the Internet can be one's only lifeline to the outside world."

Even before the hurricane season officially began, AT&T's preparations were well under way. The company's Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) organization is charged with developing and maintaining the necessary processes for recovery of functionality at critical network locations. From its beginning in 1992, NDR has grown its inventory of equipment elements to more than 150 trailer units and trained a diverse team of approximately 60 people throughout AT&T to plan and execute recovery. This team can be activated on a moment's notice, at which time the appropriate equipment and personnel head toward a disaster site and begin the process of restoring communications services as quickly as possible. Recent NDR mobilizations include Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2003 California wildfires and the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

Note: This AT&T release and other news announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss .

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. is one of the world's largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, AT&T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high speed DSL Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT&T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with 57.3 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at http://www.att.com/ .

Subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. provide products and services under the AT&T brand.

Tips for Developing an Emergency Communications Plan

Whether family members are at work or school, at home or geographically separated, AT&T reminds consumers to be AWARE -- Always Watchful, Alert and Ready in an Emergency -- with tips for developing an emergency communications plan, such as:

-- Have a Backup Phone. Have a backup telephone that is not dependent on electricity in case of an electrical power outage. Cordless telephones usually have receivers that are electrically charged, and thus will not work if there is a power outage. Consider keeping a basic hard-wired phone or cellular phone on hand for emergencies to allow communication with safety officials and loved ones even when the power is out. -- Know Whom to Call. Make a prioritized list of essential family, friends and neighbors that you may need to call. Also, make sure you have easy access to emergency phone numbers such as local hospitals, your personal doctor, your home address and auto insurance agent by programming numbers into your cell phone. -- Keep Your Phone Line Active. Keep your wireless phone batteries charged at all times, and keep your wireless phone dry to ensure functionality. In the event of an evacuation, consider purchasing a car-charger for your cell phone, and forward calls from your home line to your cell phone. -- Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario. During natural disasters, such as hurricanes or flooding, utility services can be interrupted for extended periods of time because of damage caused by high winds or flooding. Cellular phones may serve as alternative means of communication. -- Be Radio-Ready. Make sure you have a working, battery-operated radio. The radio can keep you up to date on the latest weather reports, public safety issues and evacuation notices. -- Practical Phone Tips During and After the Storm. Keep non-emergency calls to a minimum. When using a cell phone, wait 10 seconds before redialing a call. If calls do not immediately connect or if you hear a fast busy signal, the network is crowded. Use your wireless phone to access weather and news updates. Use your camera phone to snap, store and send photos of damaged property to your insurance company. More information, along with template plans, can be found at: http://www.att.com/vitalconnections Implementing a Holistic Business Continuity and Recovery Strategy

The associated costs of developing a business continuity plan and implementing a technology infrastructure to support the plan is minimal compared with the daily financial impact once disaster strikes. To help ensure the protection of critical assets, processes and services, management should develop and implement a holistic business continuity and recovery strategy, including:

-- Identifying critical business components and dependencies: business services, processes/functions, employees, facilities, systems/applications, data, platforms and networks. -- Defining how long the corporation can afford to be inoperable in terms of financial and operational impacts, should one or more critical services/processes experience disruption. -- Developing and implementing a risk-mitigation strategy, based on business impacts and priorities. -- Negotiating vendor contracts and/or lease agreements necessary to acquire equipment and services in the event of a significant disruption or disaster. -- Developing, documenting and testing a comprehensive business continuity plan for facilities (including employees), processes, systems, data, platforms and networks.

AT&T offers a wide array of business continuity services designed to help ensure the continuous operation and availability of customers' critical business processes, applications, data, work centers and networks. Business continuity is also embedded in AT&T's transport/connectivity services, virtual private network services, hosting services and high-availability services, which in many cases provide Service Level Agreements of up to 99.999 percent availability for a customer's networks, applications and data.

AT&T products and services such as Disaster Routing Service can help businesses continue to operate during natural disasters. In the event of tornadoes, electrical outages, PBX failures or fires, Disaster Routing Service can enable a company to automatically redirect incoming calls to anywhere in North America through the use of the AT&T Advanced Communications Network.

AT&T has also invested $200 million in an AT&T Labs-developed system (Integrated Global Enterprise Management System) that proactively monitors and manages the networks of some of our largest customers so they don't have to worry about their networks going down.

AT&T Inc.

CONTACT: Ed Bergstraesser, +1-212-803-2667, ed.bergstraesser@att.com ,or Aaron Bedy, +1-404-810-7157, aaron.bedy@att.com , both of AT&T Inc.

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

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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