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Cingular Wireless Scholarships to Benefit Georgia Tech Students $20,000 Grant Helps Mark Wireless Company's 20th Anniversary in Georgia ATLANTA, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless today announced the creation of a $20,000 scholarship to benefit Georgia Institute of Technology students planning a career in telecommunications. The scholarship will be divided between two students enrolled in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering program who have an interest in the field of telecommunications. Each recipient will be awarded scholarship money in his or her junior year and again in the senior year. Cingular is funding the scholarship in celebration of the company's 20th anniversary as a leading wireless provider in the state of Georgia. "This is a landmark year for those of us at Cingular Wireless," said Cliff Minor, Vice President and General Manager-Cingular Wireless-Georgia. "We want to celebrate this truly historic milestone in our business life by giving back to the community, where some of this country's first steps in mobile communications began." This first recipient of the scholarship is John Parish, of Kingwood, Texas, a rising junior in the Electrical Engineering program at Georgia Tech. Parish has maintained a 4.0 GPA and is a leader on the campus and in the classroom. He has received the President's Undergraduate Research Award to support some of his research studies and his interests include mathematics, physics, engineering, information theory and telecommunications. "The Georgia Institute of Technology is grateful to receive this unique scholarship bequest for two of our best telecommunication engineering students," said Dr. Douglas Williams, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "And we are pleased that Cingular Wireless thought of Georgia Tech in marking this important milestone." Wireless service began in Georgia on September 5, 1984, under the BellSouth Mobility Inc. name as part of Atlanta-based BellSouth. Cingular is now a joint venture owned by both SBC and BellSouth. What began as a small company dedicated to mobile communications in 1984, when mobility meant bulky suitcase phones, has grown into a phenomenon that literally has changed the way individuals live and work. Today phones that fit in a purse or pocket are powerful tools that double as cameras, streaming video phones, phones that have e-mail capability -- a full range of voice and data applications. "We are delighted to have this opportunity to support students who have made the commitment to make telecommunications their career," Minor said. "Cingular Wireless employees have always supported efforts to improve the communities in which we live and work. Through this commitment to Georgia Tech, we are taking a major step to support those who will be the future leaders of our industry for the next 20 years -- and longer. We look forward to the scholarship helping students define that future." Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers one of the nation's most comprehensive educational and research programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students are attracted by the excellence of its faculty, and by the scope of its academic programs, which are augmented by an arsenal of world-class laboratories and state-of-the-art educational facilities. The depth and breadth of faculty expertise in all areas of telecommunications is reflected in the curriculum, which provides students with a solid foundation in such areas as information and communication theory, communication networks and cryptography. Cingular will present the scholarship to officials from the Georgia Institute of Technology and to the first recipient, John Parish, at a luncheon held at The Ashford Club on Wednesday, September 29th at 11:00am. 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(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular is the largest provider of GSM services in the United States, and has a 100 percent digital GSM/GPRS footprint across its service area. It also launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular also 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, office, +1-404-236-5305, or wireless, +1-404-202-6335, or Web site: http://www.cingular.com/

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