Independent Study Ranks Pacific Bell Wireless Pure Digital Service #1 In Call Performance In Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, September 29, 1999

An independent analyst firm has named Pacific Bell Wireless as the wireless phone service with the best call performance in the Los Angeles region. A "Good Call Performance" includes network access, call performance and call quality and is defined as a call that connects on the first attempt, holds through the conversation and has clear, intelligible voice quality in both directions throughout the conversation.

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

• Performance overall
• Performance in the geographic area covering 90% of where people live
• Performance in the geographic area covering 90% of where people drive
• Performance in the geographic area covering 90% of where people work

The study was conducted in June and August 1999 and measured call performance within the geographic area where more than 90 percent of the population of the Los Angeles region lives and works. Six commercial networks (AirTouch Analog, AirTouch Digital, AT&T Analog, AT&T Digital, Pacific Bell Wireless and Sprint) were compared by placing a total of 28,860 calls over 8,500 miles throughout the region.

"The Emerald Bay study shows that with Pacific Bell Wireless, subscribers will enjoy the best call performance in the market," said Steve Sitton, president and general manager of Pacific Bell Wireless in Los Angeles. "Our customers want to be able to use their wireless phones where they live, work and play, and Pacific Bell Wireless provides them not only with call clarity, but reliable connections throughout our digital network."

Pacific Bell Wireless also received best call performance for 1999 in the San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco markets.

Pacific Bell Wireless entered the Los Angeles market just two years ago and has rapidly built out its digital network throughout the region. 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 52 million voice grade equivalent lines and 8.3 million wireless customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in nine foreign countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific 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.