BellSouth Awarded SunTone Certification for Its e-Business Internet Data Centers.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 30, 2001

BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) today announced that the company had completed the process of becoming SunTone(sm) certified for services offered through its BellSouth e-Business Internet Data Centers.

The state-of-the-art, 100,000 square foot-plus e-Business Centers - opened last September as part of BellSouth's "e-Platform" strategy for business customers - are now "SunTone certified" for quality and delivery.

During the SunTone certification process, BellSouth underwent a rigorous evaluation of its current and planned e-business enabling services, which include: Web hosting, security services, managed storage, content distribution, caching services, disaster recovery and Application Service Provider (ASP) services, among others. By achieving SunTone certification, BellSouth continues to demonstrate its commitment to providing a complete family of best-in-class e-business enabling services for its business customers.

"SunTone certification significantly advances BellSouth's progress toward becoming one of the leading service providers in this space because it gives our customers the confidence that our e-Business Internet Data Centers have been evaluated and certified for reliability and high quality," said Dick Anderson, president of BellSouth Customer Markets. "At the same time, our alliance with Sun unleashes the combined power of two powerful brands and sales channels."

SunTone certification of the BellSouth services is part of the $450 million agreement between BellSouth and Sun Microsystems that made BellSouth's e-Business Centers one of Sun's preferred hosting platforms. The agreement also established Sun as BellSouth's preferred vendor for Unix(R)-based solutions. With certification complete, Sun plans to recommend Web hosting and other "e-enabling" business products and services provided through BellSouth e-Business Centers to its own customers and business partners.

The SunTone Certification and Branding Program helps customers identify service providers that meet the high levels of service readiness, competency and capacity demanded for Internet services. Other benefits include joint business development, sales support training, priority lead referrals, and associated marketing and sales benefits of the SunTone Certification and Branding Program.

"The SunTone certification program was developed to recognize and help promote service providers who deliver high quality services," said Tim Dwyer, vice president of Marketing and Sales for Sun's Network Service Provider Group. "SunTone certification should lend BellSouth real weight in this marketplace. By meeting our strict requirements for SunTone certification, BellSouth's customers can rest easy knowing that their mission-critical data is in a center that has the Sun `Seal of Approval,' SunTone certification."

About the SUNTONE(sm) Certification And Branding Program

Launched in May 1999, The SunTone Certification and Branding Program is a collaborative effort with industry-wide support, led by Sun Microsystems to make 7-by-24 service and reliability the norm for consumer and business Internet-based services. Under the SunTone Certification and Branding Program, application service providers, service providers, and integrator service providers have completed a rigorous specification process which examines the infrastructure, operational practices, hardware, software, and overall service delivery of service providers and application service providers, to help ensure that the services or applications they provide meet the program's high standards. SunTone certification is designed to give customers the confidence that the service provider's operations and infrastructure have been evaluated and judged to be reliable and high quality. The SunTone Certification and Branding Program currently has more than 800 member service providers, independent software vendors, and network equipment providers working with Sun and over 50 SunTone certified solutions available to meet a variety of business needs.

About BellSouth Corporation

BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications services company headquartered in Atlanta, GA, serving more than 44 million customers in the United States and 16 other countries.

Consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, BellSouth provides a full array of broadband data and e-commerce solutions to business customers, including Web hosting and other Internet services. In the residential market, BellSouth offers DSL high-speed Internet access, advanced voice features and other services. BellSouth also provides online and directory advertising services, including BellSouth(R) Real PagesSM.com.

BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless company, which provides innovative wireless data and voice services.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo and SunTone are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

In addition to historical information, this press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future valuations, revenue projections, other events and trends. Factors that could affect future results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: (i) a change in economic conditions in markets where we operate or have material investments which would affect demand for our services; (ii) the intensity of competitive activity and its resulting impact on pricing strategies and new product offerings; (iii) higher than anticipated cash requirements; and (iv) technological developments.