Bell Atlantic Awards Merrimack, N.H., Resident the Company's Highest Honor

Bell Atlantic Awards Merrimack, N.H., Resident the Company's Highest Honor

John Lastowka Recognized for Outstanding Customer Service

March 30, 1998

NEW YORK -- John Lastowka of Merrimack, N.H., has been awarded Bell
Atlantic's highest employee honor, the Leaders in Excellence Award.

Lastowka, Bell Atlantic special services staff assistant, earned the
award for building a special services lab that enables Bell Atlantic
technicians to develop the skills they need to provide quality
products and services to Bell Atlantic's customers.

The Bell Atlantic Leaders in Excellence Award will be presented each
year to individual employees and employee teams who have demonstrated
a devotion to quality, along with a commitment to customers or an
outstanding dedication to community service.

Lastowka is one of seven individuals and 18 employee teams who will be
honored tomorrow at area celebrations hosted by Bell Atlantic's senior
executives. Honorees were selected from more than 2,000 nominees.

"Congratulations to our champions, who have set a new benchmark
against which future accomplishments will be measured," said Bell
Atlantic Vice Chairman Ivan Seidenberg. "Their best-in-class
performance and dedication to excellence is a model for us all."

Through Lastowka's persistence, ingenuity and foresight, the lab,
which simulates a real-world environment, was up and running in less
than five months with little cost to Bell Atlantic. Located in
Merrimack, N.H., it was modeled after a similar project in Maine and
duplicates a telephone switching facility and a customer location,
side-by-side. Bell Atlantic technicians throughout New Hampshire are
now able to practice installing and maintaining the newest technology
before being faced with a similar task at a customer location. As a
result of the success of the labs, a similar concept will be utilized
in Vermont and upstate New York.

Note to Editors: Photographs are available upon request.

Bell Atlantic - formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX -
is at the forefront of the new communications and information
industry. With 40.5 million telephone access lines and six million
wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier
providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders
in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory
information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's
largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with
operations and investments in 21 countries.