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AT&T Donates $50,000 to Telecoms Sans Frontieres During Miami Disaster Recovery Exercise

Posted on: Thursday, 2 November 2006, 15:00 CST

MIAMI, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T announced today that the AT&T Foundation has provided a $50,000 grant to Telecoms sans Frontieres (TSF) -- a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring emergency telecommunications services during catastrophes or conflicts.

Among many other rescue missions on all continents, TSF was present within hours after the earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005, where more than 2000 families and nearly 70 humanitarian organizations directly benefited from communications, in the floods in Bolivia in February 2006, and in Mitwaba in the Democratic Republic of Congo, torn by a civil war, where all of the United Nations (UN) agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on site benefited from TSF's Telecom Centre.

In 2005, TSF deployed its help to 10 affected countries to the direct benefit of over 50,000 people and 250 NGOS -- made possible by the contributions of AT&T and other entities.

The grant was presented by Javier Semerene, Regional Vice-President Of Sales For The Caribbean And Latin America Region of AT&T to Julie Cazenave, TSF coordinator of the TSF facility in Nicaragua, during AT&T's current Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) exercise in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TSF's charter is to be able to deploy its teams anywhere in world, within 48 hours of a disaster, to help re-establish telecommunications, assist rescue operations, and enable victims to reach family and friends. This is the fourth year that AT&T has supported the French-based charity in recognition of the invaluable humanitarian work that the organization does around the world.

"AT&T's grant will help us continue expanding our pioneering work and will strengthen our capacity to respond to disasters around the world," said Jean- Francois Cazenave, founding president of TSF. "We are delighted to be at Fort Lauderdale to witness AT&T's disaster recovery exercise, because it is a great opportunity to compare our best practices and learn from AT&T's disaster recovery team in action."

In addition to providing AT&T Foundation grant assistance, AT&T is also contributing technical support for the development of TSF initiatives by providing its teams with remote access to the internet and teleconferencing services. AT&T, a world expert in disaster recovery and business continuity, will also lend its skills and expertise to advise TSF in the area of emergency telecommunications.

AT&T's NDR team is the industry's only mobile, network disaster recovery team capable of monitoring, managing and proactively protecting customers' critical networks.

"AT&T has always invested heavily in building a sound capacity to assure fast recovery of telecommunications in case of a network interruption caused by any disaster," said Semerene. "It has to do not only with our ability to reestablish communications among people, but also our capacity to rapidly resume business activities and limit the economic damage caused by a disaster."

Javier Semerene explained that AT&T is proud to support TSF's mission to immediately deploy teams -- equipped with emergency satellite communications gear -- in areas where a disaster has affected their telecommunications capacities.

The AT&T NDR exercise was held at the Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino, 901 South Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach in Florida, on November 2, 2006. The exercise will demonstrate the network disaster recovery process, from the initial mobilization of team members to transport of equipment and turn-up and testing of service. AT&T draws on experience and insights gained from the exercises to continuously refine its disaster response systems and strengthen its business continuity services.

About the AT&T Foundation

The AT&T Foundation, the philanthropic arm of AT&T Inc., supports programs that build communities and improve access to information technologies, technology training and professional skills development. The new AT&T Foundation will provide more than $60 million in 2006 in charitable contributions, thereby placing it among the top five largest corporate foundations in the country. The new AT&T Foundation combines more than 40 years and $1.7 billion of philanthropic commitment to communities across the country.

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 58.7 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.

About TSF

Telecoms Sans Frontieres is the leading humanitarian GNO specialized in emergency telecommunications. With its 24-hour monitoring centre and relying on its regional bases in Nicaragua and in Thailand, TSF logistics workers and technical aid crews can intervene anywhere in the world less than 48 hours after any catastrophe or a conflict and in a matter of minutes set up an operational centre on site. This centre enables aid work to be coordinated and offers support and assistance to victim populations, giving them a link with the outside world from which they would be otherwise completely cut off. TSF is equally engaged in putting its expertise in telecommunications and experience at the service of long term solidarity projects and thus contribute to reducing the gap in sharing the world's numeric resources. TSF is a partner of OCHA and UNICEF and is the First Responder of the United Nations Emergency Telecoms Cluster. TSF is also a working group member of the United Nations emergency telecoms body (WGET) and also a partner of the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO).

AT&T Inc.

CONTACT: Evelyn Zapata for AT&T, Miami, +1-305-520-9029,evelyn.zapata@fleishman.com ; or, Julie Cazenave of TSF, Managua: +5052774843, americas@tsfi.org

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

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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