ALLTEL Will Add About 150 New Jobs to Expand Presence in Kentucky; Company Will Increase Sales Force, Expand Customer Service, Add DSL Markets.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 4, 2002

ALLTEL (NYSE:AT) today affirmed its commitment to increase its presence in Kentucky, announcing plans to add about 150 new employees, expand high-speed Internet service and bring new business to the state.

ALLTEL will add about 150 new employees in Kentucky as the company expands its operations in the state, bringing total employment to more than 1,000. The new jobs will be added in several areas, including sales, service activation, customer service, engineering and technical support.

"ALLTEL is committed to expanding local operations in Kentucky to support our growth in the state," said Terry Beeler, ALLTEL's market area president for Kentucky. "Kentucky is going to be a vital part of ALLTEL's operations, and this expansion is evidence of our commitment to the state."

"We're always excited when a new business comes to Kentucky bringing quality jobs to our citizens," said Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton. "We're grateful that ALLTEL chose to expand its businesses to Kentucky. The magnitude of this announcement demonstrates to the corporate world that Kentucky is a great place to do business."

ALLTEL also will expand on its initial plan to introduce high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet service. The service will now be added to 14 exchanges by the end of the year, an increase from the eight markets previously announced, covering approximately 90,000 customers.

In addition, ALLTEL has signed a contract with Bank One Corp.'s Retail Lockbox Services in Louisville to provide customer payment processing for ALLTEL customers in eight states. The Kentucky site will be ALLTEL's largest payment processing location, handling in excess of 18 million customer payments per year.

The new ALLTEL jobs will include some functions formerly handled out of state, such as sales and support for telephone services to serve small- and medium-sized businesses. A new sales group for telephone directory advertising will also be created.

Other new ALLTEL groups include a service activation team responsible for ensuring activation of customer calling features or services and an assignment group that assigns work orders or new accounts to the proper network location and team. The new technicians and network engineers will be responsible for repair and maintenance to telephone wiring, connections and equipment.

A breakdown of the new jobs in Kentucky:

-- Telephone directory advertising sales - 50 new positions

-- Small- to medium-sized business customer call center - 20 new positions

-- Service activation center - 20 new positions

-- Data services testers - 20 new positions

-- Small- to medium-sized business sales team - 15 new positions

-- Assignment center - 12 new positions

-- Network engineering - 11 new positions

"ALLTEL will continue to look for new ways to bring the management of our Kentucky operations closer to the customer," Beeler said. "This expansion will give our customers more points to contact ALLTEL for new services and expand our ability to respond promptly."

The areas where DSL will be introduced include Barbourville, Burnside, Campbellsville, Columbia, Flemingsburg, Glasgow, Greensburg, Greenup, Irvine, Lancaster, Lebanon, Leitchfield, Olive Hill and Russell.

ALLTEL is expected to complete its purchase of local telephone properties serving about 600,000 customers in Kentucky from Verizon during the second half of 2002.

To apply for these positions, visit the ALLTEL Web site at www.alltel.com/jobs.

ALLTEL, with more than 10 million communications customers and $7.5 billion in annual revenues, is a leader in the communications and information services industries. ALLTEL has communications customers in 24 states and provides information services to telecommunications, financial and mortgage clients in more than 50 countries.

ALLTEL, NYSE: AT

www.alltel.com