ATLANTA, August 22, 2000 - BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:
BLS) and Allegiance Telecom, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALGX) today
announced that they have completed the electronic
bonding between their operations support systems (OSS),
reducing the time required to process customer orders
for local telephone service requests. The bonding
between their systems makes it easier for Atlanta and
Miami area businesses to switch from one local service
provider to another. This accomplishment builds on
Allegiance Telecom's previously successful electronic
bonding of OSS with Verizon in New York and
Massachusetts, SBC in Texas and Missouri, Pacific Bell
in California and Ameritech in Illinois, Michigan and
Ohio.
Electronic bonding enables computers at different
phone companies to communicate with each other in
real-time, providing for rapid sharing of customer
information, service requests and other data.
"The lack of electronic bonding between
facilities-based local carriers has been widely
recognized as the principal bottleneck in realizing the
competitive local service marketplace envisioned by the
Telecommunications Act of 1996," said Royce Holland,
chairman and chief executive officer of Allegiance
Telecom. "Today's announcement with BellSouth is another
major step toward reaching our goal of implementing
electronic bonding with all incumbent local phone
providers."
"This cooperation and efficiency is an excellent
example of what can be accomplished when a CLEC and
incumbent local provider cooperatively use their
energies and resources," said Jere Drummond, BellSouth
vice chairman. "This was a collaborative effort marked
by teamwork and cooperation by both companies to foster
competition in the local telephone market."
Currently, many competitive local exchange carriers
have unique electronic systems that may not conform to
industry standards. Allegiance Telecom, however,
developed its electronic interfaces to conform with
BellSouth systems. This will enable Allegiance to
process orders quicker and at a lower cost to better
serve their local customers.
Using these electronic interfaces, Allegiance is able
to receive from BellSouth a "firm order confirmation" -
acknowledgement that an order has been received - much
more rapidly. This confirmation is typically sent within
four hours, and on many occasions, it is sent almost
instantaneously. In addition, this gives Allegiance a
more accurate order - immediately - than if the order
was taken manually.
Through June (when Allegiance Telecom began
electronically bonding with BellSouth), more than 90
competitive local exchange carriers in Georgia are
providing consumers and businesses with a choice in
local telephone service. More than 130 CLECs are
operational in Florida.
Allegiance Telecom is one of the first CLECs to bond
electronically with BellSouth for both local service
requests (LSRs) for unbundled loops and access service
requests (ASRs) for special access requests such as high
capacity T-1 lines. Allegiance is LSR bonded in five
regional Bell operating company regions, encompassing 18
of Allegiance's current 24 markets, and is ASR bonded in
100 percent of its current markets.
Electronic bonding will significantly increase the
volume of customers that can be switched to Allegiance
service each month and help eliminate opportunities for
service interruptions during the switching of a
customer's service from one local provider to another.
Allegiance Telecom (http://www.allegiancetele.com/)
is a facilities-based local exchange carrier
headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Allegiance offers
businesses a complete package of telecommunications
services, including local, long distance, international
calling, high-speed data transmission and Internet
services. Allegiance is targeting 36 major metropolitan
areas in the U.S. with its "one-stop shopping" approach.
Allegiance's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq
National Market under the symbol ALGX.
BellSouth is a $26 billion communications services
company. It provides telecommunications services,
Internet, data and e-commerce applications,wireless
communications, cable and digital TV, and online and
directory advertising to more than 40 million customers
in 18 countries worldwide.
For more information on BellSouth, please visit their
website at: http://www.bellsouth.com/
Also, BellSouth news releases dating back one year are
available by fax at no charge by calling 1-800-758-5804,
ext. 095650 or write: for Atlanta releases, 1155
Peachtree St., N.E.; Atlanta, Ga. 30309-3610 and for DC
releases, 1133 21st St., N.W.; Suite 900; Washington,
D.C. 20036. A list of BellSouth Media Relations Contacts
is available at http://www.bellsouthcorp.com/headlines/mediacon.html
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