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Cingular Wireless is Prepared When Severe Weather Hits Hurricane Preparedness Week is May 16-22, 2004 BOCA RATON, Fla., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Is your wireless company prepared when severe weather hits? With the start of the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season less than a month away this is an important question for coastal residents to ask. Cingular Wireless customers can rest assured knowing that their company is preparing now for Mother Nature's challenges this hurricane season. The company's advanced network is designed with severe weather and natural/manmade disasters in mind. "Wireless devices have become a critical communications tool for staying in touch with friends, colleagues and loved ones, especially during emergency situations," said Will Schutts-Executive Director of Network Operations-South Florida. "Not only are ordinary citizens able to keep in touch, but emergency responders throughout the state use Cingular Wireless as a communications backbone during severe weather." National Hurricane Center (NHC) officials recently advised residents in Atlantic and Gulf Coast states to be prepared for the upcoming hurricane season, which runs June 1 through November 30. The recent upturn in Atlantic basin hurricane activity that began in 1995 is expected to continue in 2004. NHC officials anticipate an above-average number of Atlantic basin tropical cyclones and an above-average probability of U.S. hurricane landfall. Representative Stan Mayfield (Vero Beach) was encouraged to learn of Cingular's preparations. "During the Florida hurricane season, reliable communications is an important tool in emergency preparedness and planning. I commend the voluntary efforts of Cingular Wireless to get the necessary equipment and personnel ready to deal with whatever comes our way." How does Cingular prepare its network for hurricane season? -- Cingular routinely monitors local weather situations, and its network team remains in constant contact with local city and emergency officials. -- Cingular's Regional Network Operations Center (RNOC) monitors and maintains its wireless network 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The monitoring system allows Cingular to work toward resolving any emergency situation within minutes. -- Towers and switching centers are designed and built to withstand hurricane-force winds. -- As electrical outages are common during storms, Cingular's switching centers have back-up emergency generators. Cell sites have high- capacity battery back-up and some have emergency generators, ensuring a secure source for power, if needed. -- Cingular has Cellular on Wheels (known as "COWs"), which are portable mobile cell sites that can be towed or driven into an area to provide extra call capacity and coverage or to restore communications following a disaster. -- Smaller than a "COW" are "COLTs" - or Cellular on Light Trucks, which are vehicles that can be driven wherever a mobile cell site is needed and include two masts for microwave antennas. -- Rounding out the network menagerie is a "RAT," which is a backup Remote Antenna Trailer that provides back-up antenna service if a tower is out of service. "Cingular Wireless has nearly 20 years of experience in providing wireless communications during severe weather," Schutts says. "Our networks have been tested in the past by severe weather and other disasters and have proven their reliability. Equally important, our employees are prepared to help customers before, during and after these occurrences." About Cingular Wireless Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth (NYSE:BLS), serves more than 25 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(TM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular has launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular provides cellular/PCS service in 43 of the top 50 markets nationwide, and provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/ . DATASOURCE: Cingular Wireless CONTACT: Dawn Benton of Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-5305, or Web site: http://www.cingular.com/

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