Independent Study Ranks Pacific Bell Wireless Pure Digital Service #1 in Call Performance in San Diego

Pacific Bell Wireless Holds Top Spot for Second Straight Year

San Diego, California, May 18, 1999

A comprehensive study released this month by an independent analyst firm named Pacific Bell Wireless as the wireless phone service with the best call performance in San Diego. For the second year in a row, Pacific Bell Wireless ranked ahead of AirTouch, Sprint and GTE.

The report, conducted by Emerald Bay, a San Jose-based research firm, ranked Pacific Bell Wireless number one for "Good Call Performance" in all four categories:

• Performance overall
• Performance covering 90% of where people live
• Performance covering 90% of where people drive
• Performance covering 90% of where people work

The study was conducted in the San Diego region in April 1999. Six commercial networks (AirTouch Analog, AirTouch Digital, GTE Analog, GTE Digital, Pacific Bell Wireless and Sprint) were compared by placing a total of 9,408 calls over 2,500 miles throughout the San Diego region. A "Good Call Performance" is defined as one that connects on the first attempt, holds through the conversation and has clear, intelligible voice quality in both directions throughout the conversation.

"For the second year in a row, the Emerald Bay study shows that with Pacific Bell Wireless, subscribers will get the best call performance in the market," said Steve Richardson, president of Pacific Bell Wireless in San Diego. "Our customers want to be able to use their wireless phones where they live, work and play, and Pacific Bell Wireless provides them with call clarity through our digital network in California."

Launched in November 1996, the Pacific Bell Wireless service was the first pure digital offering in California. The company is now the largest pure digital carrier in California and Nevada. Pacific Bell Wireless' GSM technology is the leading international technology standard for a digital wireless network, with 130 million users worldwide.

Pacific Bell Wireless, together with SBC Communications' other wireless affiliates, is a leading wireless provider, serving 7.2 million customers and seven of the top 10 markets nationwide. It is a company of SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com), a global leader in the telecommunications industry, with more than 37.7 million access lines and customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in 11 countries. Under the Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, SNET, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, SBC, through its subsidiaries, offers a wide range of innovative services. SBC offers local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, data communications, paging, Internet access, and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing. SBC has more than 130,000 employees and its annual revenues rank it in the top 50 among Fortune 500 companies.