Bell Atlantic Expands Customer Research Facility; Adds 54 Jobs in Clifton Park, N.Y.

Bell Atlantic Expands Customer Research
Facility;
Adds 54 Jobs in Clifton Park, N.Y.

Center Tracks Customer Satisfaction
in 13 States and Washington, D.C.

December 21, 1998

NEW YORK -- Bell Atlantic has consolidated all customer satisfaction
research work to its Clifton Park, NY, facility, adding four full-time and
50 part-time jobs at the upstate New York center.

Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights, LLC, of Little Rock, Ark., will manage
and staff the expanded operation for Bell Atlantic. Flake-Wilkerson,
which recently won the contract with Bell Atlantic following a
competitive bidding process, provides customer and marketing research
for companies throughout the United States.

"Providing outstanding service to our customers is Bell Atlantic's number
one goal," said Fran Picone, Bell Atlantic's executive director for customer
research. "Expansion of this center and the ongoing customer satisfaction
research we do there is a crucial element of our overall Customer Care
strategy."

"I'm pleased that Bell Atlantic continues to increase its commitment to
customer care, and has decided to expand the number of people employed
at its customer research operation in Clifton Park," New York State Senate
Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said. "Bell Altantic is joining a long list
of companies that are expanding here or choosing to locate in Saratoga
County. The expansion will help contribute to our local economy, which is
growing stronger every day."

The Clifton Park center was opened in 1993 with about 90 part-time and
eight full-time employees. Since then, more workers were added to handle
all of the customer satisfaction follow-up calls for the New York and New
England regions of the former NYNEX. With the consolidation, a total of
22 full-time and 150 part-time employees at the center will now handle the
same functions throughout Bell Atlantic's service area, which covers 13
states and Washington, D.C.

Bell Atlantic and its vendors worked closely with Saratoga Economic
Development Corp. and the New York State Department of Labor to
determine the feasibility of expanding at the Clifton Park site.

Each month, employees at the center will complete about 25,000
telephone interviews with a sampling of customers who recently had a line
repaired or installed by Bell Atlantic. The customers will be asked
questions about their level of satisfaction with the work completed by
company technicians. In addition, callers at the center will sample
customers who recently dealt with a Bell Atlantic business office or an
operator. And Bell Atlantic's largest business customers will be
interviewed annually.

Bell Atlantic tracks responses from customers each month and uses the
results to analyze the company's processes for delivering quality service.

"This is what a smart company does in an increasingly competitive
marketplace," added Picone. "By continually gauging our customers'
levels of satisfaction with the service we provide, we move closer to our
goal of becoming the customer's first choice for communication and
information services in every market we serve, domestic and
international."

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and
information industry. With more than 42 million telephone access lines
and more than eight 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 23 countries.