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BellSouth Confirms to Wholesale Customers That Services will Continue Even as Rules Change ATLANTA, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth today confirmed that there would be no disruption of service if current rules on wholesale leasing of BellSouth unbundled network elements (UNEs) are vacated next month. Under a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals order due to go into effect on June 16, BellSouth will no longer be required to lease certain portions of its networks to its wholesale customers. In a letter to its customers on May 24, BellSouth pledged to take no unilateral action to disconnect service to its wholesale customers as a result of the court's vacatur. (http://interconnection.bellsouth.com/notifications/carrier/carrier_pdf/ 91084106.pdf) To ensure a smooth and fair transition to the new market environment, BellSouth will use established legal and regulatory processes to implement the D.C. Circuit Court's decision. "We are committed to going through the appropriate process," said Keith Cowan, President of BellSouth Interconnection Services. "This is not a new process. The process has been successfully utilized multiple times since the passage of the Act when the FCC previously removed network elements from the list." "In those cases, no wholesale customers lost service as a result of the elements' removal from interconnection agreements," Cowan explained. "For example, switching for enterprise customers in certain large markets was previously removed from the mandated list. Over a hundred of BellSouth's wholesale customers entered into commercial agreements for market priced switching for enterprise end user customers. The transition from the regulated environment to the competitive environment was smooth with complete service continuity." "In addition, BellSouth will continue to negotiate commercial agreements with all interested wholesale customers," said Cowan. "We have posted an attractive proposal on our website that offers Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) a DSO wholesale local voice platform service to replace the current unbundled switching arrangement with no price increase through the remainder of 2004." "We have already signed seven commercial agreements and believe we can achieve additional commercial agreements, especially if we are in a position where neither side has a regulatory advantage in the negotiations," he added. "These negotiations must be done in good faith. We pledge to continue to do that." A transition plan has also been proposed to transfer wholesale customers from the current arrangement with UNE high-capacity dedicated transport, loops, and dark fiber, currently purchased under the competitor's government- mandated interconnection agreement, to BellSouth tariffed and regulated offerings or to other alternative facilities. BellSouth's approach will allow all CLECs acting in good faith to continue uninterrupted service to their customers during the transition to a changed regulatory environment. "BellSouth is committed to continue providing quality wholesale service and urges its wholesale customers to consider the proposals we have made," said Cowan. About BellSouth Corporation BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and a parent company of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless voice and data provider. Backed by award winning customer service, BellSouth offers the most comprehensive and innovative package of voice and data services available in the market. Through BellSouth Answers(SM), residential and small business customers can bundle their local and long distance service with dial up and high speed DSL Internet access, satellite television and Cingular(R) Wireless service. For businesses, BellSouth provides secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also offers online and directory advertising through BellSouth(R) RealPages.com(SM) and The Real Yellow Pages(R). More information about BellSouth can be found at http://www.bellsouth.com/ . MEDIA CONTACT: Al Schweitzer BellSouth 404-829-8741 DATASOURCE: BellSouth Corporation CONTACT: Al Schweitzer of BellSouth, +1-404-829-8741, or Web site: http://www.bellsouth.com/

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