Southwestern Bell Launches Campaign to Enhance Personal Safety

Safety Week Creates Awareness of Wireless Phone Benefits

San Antonio, Texas, May 19, 1997

As part of the national Wireless Safety Week, Southwestern Bell is launching an educational campaign to help local residents use their wireless phones to better protect themselves at home, at play, at work and on the road. Wireless Safety Week, sponsored by the wireless telephone industry, runs from May 19 through 25.

"Southwestern Bell firmly believes that wireless phones can provide a crucial connection between people who need help and those who provide help," said Southwestern Bell safety spokesperson Jan Collier. "With the concern about violence on the rise nationally and as we head into the summer months, when the numbers of crimes and highway accidents typically rise, now is the perfect time to educate consumers about ways to enhance their personal safety and that of their families and the significant role a wireless phone can play."

As part of its campaign, Southwestern Bell is providing personal safety tips to consumers from Jan Collier, a director of consumer awareness for the company who also is involved in market research and understands consumers' many reasons for buying and using wireless service, including for personal safety. In addition, Southwestern Bell is offering a free "Crucial Connections" personal safety brochure that includes tips, including:

• At Home -- When severe weather strikes, grab a flashlight, a battery-powered radio and your wireless phone and go to a safe place. Call for help if needed.
• At Home -- Seniors should carry a wireless phone while working in the garden or doing other outdoor activities so they can call for help if there's an emergency.
• At Work -- Have your wireless phone in hand and turned on when walking to your car -- especially at night.
• At Play -- Take your wireless phone on hunting and fishing trips so family members can contact you and so you can call for help in the case of an emergency.
• On The Road -- Lend your wireless phone to teenage sons and daughters. If they find themselves in an uncomfortable or dangerous situation, they can call for a ride home or for much-needed advice.

"About 50,000 calls are made each day from wireless phones to 9-1-1 or other emergency numbers nationwide. That's 18 million such calls a year," Collier said. "We want to educate consumers -- from teenagers to seniors -- that wireless phones can play a big part in helping ensure the safety of themselves and of others."

The number of wireless phone users in the United States is growing at a tremendous rate. From 1988 to 1995, the number of wireless subscribers in the United States increased by 1,685 percent. In addition, the number of wireless users is expected to double to 80 million nationwide in just the next three years.

And business people no longer are the only ones using wireless phones. In fact, 50 percent of wireless subscribers now say they use their phones for reasons such as personal safety and security.

Southwestern Bell Wireless is a leader in providing superior wireless communication services to consumers and businesses nationwide. Together with its affiliates, Cellular One and Pacific Bell Mobile Systems, Southwestern Bell Wireless offers local and long-distance wireless and paging services to 4.7 million customers nationwide. It currently serves 77 markets nationwide, including six of the nation's top 20 cities.

Southwestern Bell Wireless is a subsidiary of SBC Communications Inc., an international leader in the telecommunications industry, with more than 31 million access lines and 4.7 million wireless customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in eight foreign countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, the company through its subsidiaries offers a wide range of innovative services, including local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, paging, Internet access, cable TV and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing. SBC (www.sbc.com) has approximately 110,000 employees. SBC and Pacific Telesis Group reported combined 1996 revenues of $23.5 billion.

Consumers can receive a free "Crucial Connections" personal safety brochure by writing to: "Crucial Connections," P.O. Box 8797, St. Louis, MO, 63101-8797. The brochure also will be available on the Internet at www.sbc.com.