AirTouch Japanese Cellular Ventures Achieve One Million Customers.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1996--Continuing its strong growth in the global wireless market, AirTouch Communications (NYSE:ATI) today announced that its three Japanese cellular ventures, known as the Digital Phone Group, have reached a total of one million customers, less than two years after beginning service in Tokyo.

In 1995, these three ventures, which operate in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, grew 335 percent, adding over 600,000 customers. Since June of 1995 the Group has added over 50,000 new customers per month, adding a record 99,400 in February.

"We continue to be thrilled -- and somewhat amazed -- at the phenomenal demand for cellular service in Japan," said Arun Sarin, president and chief executive officer of AirTouch International. "Outside of the United States, Japan is the largest cellular market in the world. Yet, its cellular penetration rate is still only about six percent -- or half the rate in the U.S. -- so we're confident more growth lies ahead."

The Digital Phone Group attributes its rapidly growing demand to strong consumer acceptance of cellular, especially among customers in their 20's and 30's. Other contributing factors include a variety of attractive pricing packages, the availability of smaller, less expensive handsets, and continued service area expansion. At the end of February, population coverage reached 86 percent in the Tokyo region, 95 percent in the Kansai region, and 93 percent in the Nagoya region. These three markets have over 77 million people.

AirTouch holds a 15 percent interest in Tokyo Digital Phone and 13 percent interests in Kansai Digital Phone (based in Osaka) and Central Japan Digital Phone (based in Nagoya). In addition, AirTouch holds ownership interests in six other Japanese cellular ventures which will begin service in 1996 and 1997. These nine ventures will cover virtually all of Japan's 125 million people.

Tokyo Digital Phone launched service on April 1, 1994, becoming AirTouch's first venture to start operating in Japan. That date marked a new era for Japanese cellular customers because, for the first time, the government allowed people to buy instead of lease cellular handsets. Since then, the country's cellular market has exploded, quadrupling from about two million to over eight million customers. The Digital Phone Group has enjoyed strong growth, despite the presence of at least four other wireless competitors in each region where it operates.

AirTouch is the largest American cellular operator in Japan. The company has played a key technical role in the Digital Phone Group, and has been integrally involved in designing and building the cellular network. Japanese cellular companies use the personal digital cellular (PDC) standard -- a unique digital technology.

In addition to Japan, other AirTouch cellular ventures around the world continue to experience strong growth. Earlier this month, Mannesmann Mobilfunk, the German cellular operation in which AirTouch owns 35 percent, announced it had reached over 1.6 million customers. Two of AirTouch's newer ventures -- Airtel in Spain and Omnitel in Italy -- respectively served 50,000 and 100,000 customers in early March, after launching commercial service in late 1995. Last year, AirTouch's proportionate international customer base more than doubled, to nearly 800,000.

AirTouch Communications is a global wireless communications company, with interests in cellular, paging, personal communications services, and the Globalstar satellite system in the United States and 12 other nations: Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Thailand. The company, based in San Francisco, serves over 5.5 million customers worldwide. -0-

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

Except for the historical information presented, the matters discussed in this release are forward-looking statements. They represent the Company's reasonable judgment on the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Such factors include: a change in economic conditions in the various markets served by the Company's operations which would adversely affect the level of demand for wireless services; greater-than-anticipated competitive activity requiring new pricing and/or product offerings or resulting in higher acquisition costs; better-than-expected customer growth driving increased investment in network capacity; level of fraudulent activity; impact of new business opportunities requiring significant up-front investments; and impact on capital spending of the deployment of new technologies. These and other factors related to the business are described in the Company's 10-K under "Investment Considerations".

For a fax copy of this or other recent AirTouch press releases, please call 1-800/344-7531.

CONTACT: AirTouch Communications

Susan Rosenberg, 510/210-3910