Bell Atlantic's Dover Township Video Dialtone

Bell Atlantic's Dover Township Video Dialtone
Network

What is it?

Bell Atlantic's 384-channel, all-digital video dialtone [VDT] network in
Dover Township offers consumers and businesses a high-quality alternative
for their cable and video services.

Bell Atlantic makes channel capacity on its Dover Township network
available to video information providers [VIPs] on an open,
non-discriminatory basis. Consumers can choose any competing programmer
for video services. This differs from the traditional cable TV system,
in which consumers have one choice -- the cable company's line-up -- and
one company controls what is seen by all viewers on its system.

Who is providing programming on Bell Atlantic's VDT network?

Seven video information providers have reserved capacity on the Dover
Township VDT network. They include FutureVision [96 channels reserved];
Graff Pay-Per-View, Inc. [12 channels]; International TeleCommerce [1
channel]; Playboy Entertainment Group [1 channel] and Rainbow Programming
Holdings, Inc. [192 channels]. Two other VIPs have requested that their
names not be publicly disclosed at this time. At this time, only
FutureVision has passed compliance testing on the VDT network and is
providing programming.

Programmers interested in becoming a VIP on the Dover Township network
should call the Bell Atlantic VIP Sales Center on 1-800-215-0070.

Whom should consumers call to order service?

Consumers should call the video information providers to inquire about
service offerings, prices and availability in their particular
neighborhood. Bell Atlantic will make its VDT service available to
38,000 Dover Township homes and businesses on a phased-in basis over the
next three years.

What type of network architecture is being used in the Dover Township
VDT system?

Bell Atlantic is building an all-digital, "fiber-to-the-curb"
network to provide voice, data, video and interactive services to Dover
Township consumers and businesses. The network uses digital switching
and fiber-optic cables, which carry both telephone and video signals out
to a neighborhood terminal -- called an "optical network unit,"
or ONU -- that serves up to eight homes. From the ONU, coaxial cables
carry video signals into the home, and copper wires carry telephone
signals.

Installing in this way has a number of advantages:

• The company can respond much more quickly to customers' requests
  for additional services, such as another phone line or advanced calling
  features.

• This configuration greatly increases the reliability of the Bell
  Atlantic telecommunications network.

• This upgraded network also will reduce maintenance expenses for the
  company.

• Bell Atlantic will constantly monitor the network's performance,
  often identifying and correcting problems before customers even know
  there might be a problem.

This network increases the amount of bandwidth available to offer
consumers a wide variety of services such as voice telephone service,
high-speed data connections to on-line services and the Internet, video
and interactive services.

Which vendors are you using to build this network?

Bell Atlantic is working with the following companies to build its VDT
network: BroadBand Technologies, for network hardware and software;
DiviCom, for digital encoders used on Bell Atlantic's menu channel;
Philips and DiviCom, for digital entertainment terminals -- or set-top
boxes -- in consumers' homes; AT&T Network Systems, for an "ATM
edge device," which allows our network to integrate video signals
coming in from VIPs; Memotec, for network signaling equipment; and
Siecor, Alcatel, Pirelli and Comm Scope, for cable that is being
installed throughout Dover Township.

How many homes will this network serve?

We will pass 38,000 Dover Township homes and businesses when the system
is completed. In building the system, we intend to pass from 1,000 to
1,500 homes per month according to a detailed construction schedule.

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