AT&T teams with Disney for the community of the future.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 1995--Residents of Celebration, Fla., a planned 4,900 acre community being developed by The Celebration Company, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, will soon be cruising an AT&T test track on the information superhighway, participating in a "living laboratory" designed to help futurists understand how people adapt to emerging high technology products and services.

As a featured supplier to The Celebration Company, AT&T Solutions plans to provide Celebration's residents with new and innovative consumer products and services; and intends to also deliver the broadband network infrastructure that will integrate and deliver all voice, video and data services throughout the community.

Through the envisioned network, people will be interconnected seamlessly with information in homes, schools, businesses and government offices. Plans call for residents to be able to access a variety of on-line interactive services such as shopping, banking, and community information, allowing them easy access to each other, and the information and services they want anytime, anywhere.

"The promise of the information superhighway is that anyone can have any information they want instantly," said Alf Andreassen, AT&T Solutions client partner. "The Celebration community could serve as a model that community developers will embrace and improve upon in residential and business environments worldwide."

When completed, the Celebration Network is envisioned to be a comprehensive, digital, fiber-to-the-curb optical network providing voice, data and video communication throughout the community. Plans call for the centerpiece of this infrastructure to be an AT&T SLC-2000 Access System with FLX Switched Digital Video. The system, a joint development between AT&T Network Systems and BroadBand Technologies Inc., is planned to enable Celebration subscribers to obtain services ranging from standard telephone service to full motion, high-definition digital interactive multimedia services.

"An alliance was struck with AT&T because of the company's high product quality, and commitment to building virtual electronic communities," said Charles Adams, director of community business development for The Celebration Company.

The network recently began serving Celebration Place, the business park of the community, in April 1995. Residential service is planned to begin with the completion of the first Celebration home.

AT&T also plans to make state-of-the-art consumer products and services available for purchase to all Celebration residents. Through product and services contributed by AT&T, the first 300 Celebration families will have the option of becoming voluntary participants in a "living laboratory".

AT&T researchers plan to analyze and evaluate consumer attitudes and behavioral data concerning proposed products and services, applying the results to future consumer offerings.

Participating families will be provided with an array of new and enhanced products and services featuring easy-to- use technology for a variety of lifestyles. AT&T contributions could range from a product such as the AT&T HomeCenter System for electronic bill paying on a home TV screen, or may include electronic bill paying software for a personal computer. Other contributions may include an intelligent telephone like the AT&T Computer Telephone 8130 with powerful call management features designed to improve home-based worker productivity.

These families may also receive a voice-activated long-distance service similar to AT&T VoiceLine (sm) Service which allows people to make calling card calls simply by speaking the name of the person they're calling. Additional services, such as the AT&T True Connections (sm) 500 personal number, can be programmed to ring virtually anywhere a Celebration subscriber chooses.

Innovative AT&T products and services will be available for purchase by all residents of Celebration as the community grows.

"The forward looking environment of Celebration will provide AT&T with exciting opportunities to create a `living laboratory' to explore how people learn about new technologies," said Andreassen. "This pioneering effort will serve generations to come."

AT&T Solutions provides large global clients the resources to create and sustain competitive advantages and improvements in profitability. It teams with other AT&T business units, as well as incorporates best-in-class offerings from other companies, to deliver innovative business solutions. The combination of expert consulting skills with systems integration and outsourcing services enables AT&T to deliver superior electronic commerce solutions anywhere, anytime. -0-

BACKGROUNDER 

ALL WITHIN THEIR REACH

For the residents of the town of Celebration, the benefits of technology will be comfortably within their reach with a broad array of AT&T high-technology products and services.

"We have learned from more than a century of delivering world-class long-distance service that technology makes many things possible," said John A. Greco, Jr., director of the AT&T Consumer Laboratory. "But what's most important to customers is making technology useful -- just as AT&T is doing in the town of Celebration."

To meet consumers needs in ways that no other communications company can, AT&T will equip 300 Celebration residences with a variety of AT&T products and services (see main release) and solicit feedback on a regular basis. The town of Celebration will become a unique opportunity -- for both consumers and AT&T -- to shape the future of technology.

For additional information, contact:

Wendy Macey - AT&T 908-221-6647 -0-

BACKGROUNDER

AT&T Network Systems and BroadBand Technologies

Make Disney's Fiber Optic Community of the Future A Reality

AT&T Network Systems and BroadBand Technologies, Inc. have been chosen by The Celebration Company, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, to provide the latest generation switched digital fiber-to-the-curb network for Celebration, a new town under development near Orlando, Florida.

Families residing in Celebration, which is expected to grow to 20,000 residents, will have all the wonders of Information Superhighway technologies at their fingertips with AT&T and BroadBand's jointly developed broadband access architecture platform -- The SLC-2000 Access System with FLX r Switched Digital Video. This product integrates AT&T's SLC-2000 digital system with BroadBand's Fiber Loop Access (FLX) switching and transport technology, creating for network operators a powerful, cost-effective technology platform for new digital services and brings ATM to the home. The solution provides unlimited bandwidth for ATM signals, and complies with industry standards, i.e., SONET, ATM, MPEG and TR-303, providing true service independence. This is the second planned deployment of this switched digital video system for the two companies. Southwestern Bell is deploying this access platform in Richardson, TX.

Providing leading-edge telephony, cable TV, interactive digital multimedia and high-speed data communications services to future residents is a vision for Celebration, where a feature-rich communications tapestry can be configured to give residents the imaginative services a true community of the future will provide.

"The proof of any technologies' value is the benefit it brings to people's lives," said Bob Henry, vice president for Business Development at BroadBand. "The interactive communications services that Celebration residents will have demonstrates the way in which switched digital broadband technology is delivering today's most advanced communications solutions, and providing an unrestricted path to the future."

"We are excited about working with Disney for good reasons," said Ronald H. Shurter, vice president of AT&T Network Systems Network Integration Services group which is responsible for providing the professional services including design, testing, deployment and end-to-end integration for the access network. "Disney is a visionary company. We see Celebration becoming a blueprint for community development across the country and a showcase for our integrated services."

The power of a truly service independent digital network bringing ATM to the home can be seen in the types of future benefits that could be provided to residents of Celebration. Since services as broad as the imagination of the developer can now be configured and implemented at any data rate, at any time, future benefits could include:

- Home security linking each resident to a central

monitoring point.

- Home energy management allowing residents to manage

energy and water usage, even meter reading.

- Interactive banking

- Voting from home

- Virtual office. Residents with technical jobs would

be able to perform complex, job related tasks at home,

such as downloading CAD files.

- High-speed Internet access.

- Total interactive linkage between residences, health

care facilities, schools, community facilities and

retail establishments.

As the technological enablers for this fiber optic community, AT&T Network Systems and BroadBand Technologies are demonstrating ways in which essentially invisible technology becomes visible, by improving the quality of life of every resident in Celebration.

AT&T Network Systems is the world's largest manufacturer of network telecommunications equipment and supplier of end-to-end solutions used by network service and information providers around the world.

BroadBand Technologies, Inc., based in Research Triangle Park, NC, was founded in 1988. Its mission is to provide network operators with the systems required to bring the power of interactive switched digital broadband technology to consumers. The company's Fiber Loop Access (FLX) System is currently being developed by Bell Atlantic and is being trialed by Southwestern Bell. It has been in trials in most regional Bell operating companies, by GTE, and by a number of international telephone companies.

SLC is a registered trademark of AT&T Network Systems FLX is a registered trademark of BroadBand Technologies, Inc.

CONTACT: Coppithorne & Bellows  AT&T Network Systems

(For BroadBand Technologies) T.J. Romano, 617-574-3157

Joann Anderson, 617-252-0606

or or

AT&T AT&T

Gary Morgenstern Norman Booth, 908-221-6302

908-221-6153 [e-mail]

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