AT&T HELPS BUSINESSES MAKE TELECOMMUTING PRACTICAL, TRANSPARENT.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 1995--AT&T, an innovator in telecommuting and other flexible work arrangements, said today it is sharing its expertise with the growing number of businesses that want to set up telecommuting and alternative workplace arrangements for employees.

AT&T is offering a new family of services called AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions(SM) that help businesses take advantage of AT&T's network intelligence to route calls to and from employees' homes or other alternative work sites.

AT&T also announced yesterday that it will co-sponsor national Telecommute America week October 23 through 27 with the federal government.

"Companies want to give employees greater flexibility in their jobs while providing improved productivity, better service and lower costs to their customers," said Kathy Marsico, marketing vice president for AT&T. "At the same time, many businesses are looking at ways to comply with the federal Clean Air Act, which aims to reduce pollution from commuting," Marsico said.

"AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions, will help companies make the transition into telecommuting programs so employees can work faster, be mobile and have more flexibility in achieving business objectives," Marsico said.

Businesses can use AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions to support non-traditional work environments regardless of the location -- from individual telecommuting employees to remote call center agents.

One offer, Alternative WorkPlace Solutions -- 800 Service, contains an option that routes calls to a specific telecommuting employee or distributes calls equally to alternate locations if the primary telecommuting employee is busy. Using AT&T's Advanced 800 Services, the remote employee also can consult with a coworker at another location and then transfer the caller. Alternative WorkPlace Solutions -- 800 Service has an additional option that distributes inbound calls to workers either in a prearranged sequence, or by balancing the call load among a group of agents.

While the Alternative WorkPlace Solution -- 800 Service is geared toward "knowledge workers," that is professional employees who work independently, an Alternative WorkPlace Solutions -- Remote Agent offer is geared toward helping businesses manage off-site "production" workers. These are remote agents typically involved in order processing, reservations, customer service or mass marketing and require some type of performance monitoring.

Alternative WorkPlace Solutions -- Remote Agent combines call routing capabilities based in the AT&T network with custom call routing commands from a business's on-site processor. Businesses can use this to identify any agent across multiple offices or call centers who is free to take a call, giving consumers the look and feel of a single, virtual call center.

The Remote Agent offer polls all of a business's automatic call distributors (ACDs) to monitor agent activity and distributes calls evenly across call centers or offices. It also contains an option that moves the load-balancing capabilities of a company's ACD into the AT&T network. This ACD-in-the-network functionality helps call centers minimize queue times and reduce agents' idle time.

Another offer, Alternative WorkPlace Solutions -- SDN, extends AT&T's Software Defined Network (SDN) services to both telecommuters working at home and mobile workers -- those employees who may be out of the office, visiting a client, or on the road. This offer features a new service called SDN Virtual Office Connection that gives off-site employees easy access to their companies' SDN network via a toll-free number.

An employee working from home or other predetermined location can place a business call through SDN Virtual Office Connection by dialing a toll-free number followed by the number of the person being called. The company's SDN network reads the caller's telephone number to authorize the call, completes it, and records information for the company's phone bill. The employee's home phone line is unaffected. To place a personal call, the employee simply dials as normal without the toll-free number.

AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions allows businesses to add other SDN services including voice mail, cellular, calling card and teleconferencing services, as well as SDN EasyLink(R) Solutions for messaging services such as enhanced fax and electronic mail, and SDDN Switched Access Data for LAN Interconnections.

Businesses also can take advantage of Alternative WorkPlace Solutions' consulting services to help develop telecommuting programs, as well as training and hotline support. Additionally, businesses have the option to purchase the virtual office hardware they need including facsimile machines, modems and PCs, and worker productivity and collaboration software, such as Lotus Notes.

"AT&T has been a pioneer with its own company-wide employee telecommuting programs and now through sponsorship of Telecommute America," Marsico said.

"In developing AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions, we've drawn from our own telecommuting experiences and produced a comprehensive suite of offers -- from the desktop to the network -- that will help our customers quickly adopt non-traditional office programs with little disruption to their businesses and with tangible customer benefits," Marsico said.

Most network features for the Alternative WorkPlace Solutions 800 and SDN offers are generally available today. However, the entire Alternative WorkPlace Solutions family of offers will be available this fall.

Separate pricing is being developed for each offer that will include feature functionality, hardware, software, training and consulting services. Transport service costs for all three offers will be priced according to the corresponding tariff or individual company contract. Leasing on equipment through AT&T Capital Corp. also will be available this fall.

For more information on AT&T Alternative WorkPlace Solutions, AT&T customers can call their account representatives or call 1-800-222-0400.

CONTACT: Michael Lordi -- AT&T

908-221-6382 (office)

610-559-7765 (home)

OR

Mona Williams -- AT&T

908-221-4355 (office)

908-647-8191 (home)