DALLAS, TEXAS
(April 28, 1999) - SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) and
Allegiance Telecom, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGX) today announced
they have launched electronic bonding between their
operations support systems, reducing the initial time
required to process customer orders by more than 75% on
average -- making it easier for Texas telephone
customers to switch rapidly from one local telephone
company to another.
Electronic bonding enables computers at different
phone companies to communicate with each other in
real-time, providing for rapid sharing of customer
information 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 SBC is another major
step toward reaching our goal of implementing electronic
bonding with all incumbent local phone providers."
"This is an excellent example of what can be
accomplished when a CLEC and an incumbent local provider
use their resources and energies to work together," said
Royce Caldwell, president of SBC Operations. "This was a
truly collaborative effort highlighted by cooperation
and teamwork. This could virtually be the model for how
local competition should evolve going forward."
Most competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs)
currently have their own unique type of electronic
systems that may not adhere to industry standards.
Consequently, some CLECs rely on faxing customer orders
to the incumbent local telephone company, which then
must manually input this information into their systems
for processing. Allegiance, however, developed its
electronic interfaces to conform with industry
standards, as did Southwestern Bell.
By adopting this process, Allegiance is able to
receive from Southwestern Bell a "firm order commitment"
- confirmation that an order has been received - much
more rapidly. Using electronic interfaces, this
confirmation is typically sent within five hours, and on
many occasions, it is sent almost instantaneously.
Previously, using the manual system, it took
approximately 24 hours on average to complete this step.
Once the confirmation is sent, the time for order
completion continues to match the five business day
average order intervals that Southwestern Bell provides
its retail customers. As a comparison, that interval is
consistent with the time typically required for a
customer to change long distance providers.
To date, 613 CLECs have received state approval to
provide local service in the states that SBC serves and
285 CLECs have passed orders to SBC. SBC continues to
move aggressively to open all of its markets to
competition, and has lost more than 2.3 million lines to
competitors to date.
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.
The two companies were able to establish electronic
bonding between their systems in record time, moving
from process initiation to limited production within 90
days. Allegiance and Southwestern Bell hope their
success will serve as a template for the industry and
encourage other incumbent local exchange companies and
CLECs to institute the same process. Electronic bonding
is a non-proprietary architecture that is fully
available to any local provider.
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 24 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.
SBC Communications Inc. (http://www.sbc.com/) is a
global leader in the telecommunications industry, with
more than 37.7 million access lines and 7.2 million
wireless customers across the United States, as well as
investments in telecommunications businesses in 11
countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell,
SNET, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, SBC, through
its subsidiaries, offers a wide range of innovative
services. SBC offers local and long-distance telephone
service, wireless communications, data communications,
paging, Internet access, and messaging, as well as
telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising
and publishing. SBC has more than 130,000 employees and
its annual revenues rank it in the top 50 among Fortune
500 companies.
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