AT&T Simplifies Completing International Calls.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1995--AT&T today announced an innovative automatic redial service that gives U.S. consumers a simple, trouble-free way to reach their loved ones in other countries.

Called AT&T International Redial(SM), the service is scheduled to be available to 20 countries in multiple languages on March 30. An additional 32 countries will be added by the end of June; all direct-dial countries by the end of 1995. A patent is currently pending on this service.

When an international call cannot be completed because of a busy signal or no answer, consumers who subscribe to AT&T International Redial don't need to keep redialing. The AT&T network will automatically redial the number for 30 minutes.

The service works like this: If an international call doesn't go through, a consumer who has the service simply pushes the star button followed by the numbers 2, 3 and 4 to initiate the service. The AT&T network does the rest.

The AT&T network automatically tries the number up to 10 times during the next half hour. When the phone is answered, an announcement asks the person answering to remain on the line to be connected to the caller in the U.S. The AT&T network will then ring the U.S. consumer's phone to complete the call.

"Today, thanks to the technological innovation of AT&T Bell Laboratories, AT&T is the first long distance company to offer international callers a `World Without Limits,'" said Shaun Gilmore, vice president, global consumer communications services. "AT&T International Redial delivers a world that isn't limited by time differences, busy phones or busy circuits. This is yet another example of how AT&T is delivering on its mission to provide people easy access to each other and to the information and services they need anytime, anywhere."

The service, provided only by AT&T, will be available next month to: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, selected cities in Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela.

By the end of June, the service will be available to: Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Initially, consumers can select from 14 languages, both for the instructions that they will hear and for the announcement that will be played when the call is answered in the other country. The languages are: Arabic, English (three variations include American, Indian and West African), Farsi, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish and Urdu. As countries are added, languages will also be added.

The service will carry a $3.00 monthly fee for an introductory period. Calls completed with AT&T International Redial are billed to the U.S. caller at direct-dial AT&T rates. These calls are eligible for AT&T TrueWorld(SM) Savings or AT&T True Country(SM) Savings discounts. There is no charge for calls which are not completed.

AT&T is the world's leading telecommunications company with more than 306,000 employees and operations in more than 200 countries. In 1994, AT&T Consumer Communications Services, which is providing AT&T International Redial, became the third business unit of the company to be awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Consumers interested in subscribing to AT&T International Redial should call 1-800-732-9675 to speak to a customer service representative; Cusomters who prefer may call 1-800-533-0019, ext. 100 to speak to an Indian customer service representative; 1-800-821-4428, ext. 100 to speak to a Filipino representative; 1-800-542-2025, ext. 7393 to speak to a Russian-speaking representative; 1-800-826-2600, ext. 7392 to speak to a Polish-speaking representative or 1-800-443-9383, ext. 740 to speak to a Spanish-speaking representative. -0-

AT&T Human Factors = User-Friendly Service

AT&T Human Factors engineers work hard to ensure that new services are easy to use and easy to understand for callers around the world.

With AT&T International Redial(SM), Human Factors engineers had to solve a number of problems: How should the announcements be worded, how long should they be, even what type of voices and accents would best be suited to make the recordings.

"It wasn't simply a matter of writing one announcement, translating it into several other languages and loading the results into a neat software package for the AT&T network," says Walter Hawkins, a technical manager with AT&T's Human Factors Group in Holmdel, N.J. "We had to carefully craft wording in each language to ensure that the announcements were brief, yet clear and complete."

One of the stickiest problems, Hawkins said, was to make sure the incoming announcement did not confuse the called party. "Hearing a voice asking you to wait on the line for a call from the United States could cause concern or confusion if the announcement wasn't worded properly. At the same time, we didn't want people to think they simply were hearing an advertisement for phone service."

Hawkins and his team held a number of focus groups with consumers from each of the countries to which the new service initially will be available. Using feedback from these sessions, AT&T commissioned translators who could not only speak the language but who also had a good grasp of the cultural nuances that had to be an essential part of each announcement.

Once the Human Factors team was satisfied with each announcement the engineers had to find the right "voice" to make the recordings. "We wanted a voice, in each language, that was friendly and professional--and easily understood by a broad spectrum of people from every country involved."

Because AT&T is so culturally diverse, the company turned to its own managers from various countries to listen to announcements and suggest the best ones. Actual AT&T International Redial calls also were placed to the families of these managers so AT&T could gauge callers' reactions in real time.

"Whenever AT&T unveils a new service, even if it's strictly for use in this country, the human side of the equation is carefully considered," Hawkins said. "After all, ease of use goes hand in hand with quality and reliability, the hallmarks of every AT&T service."

CONTACT: Dick Gundlach

908/777-8241 (beeper)

718/533-9020 (office)

John Skalko

908/221-8413 (office)

201/729-8202 (home)