Billboard Broadcasts Battle as Kempner Fights Flagrant Unfair Practices by Cingular; Little Guy Takes It to the Streets.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2002

With a gigantic billboard trumpeting his case all over town, independent wireless dealer Scott Kempner of Lincolnwood, Illinois, is "taking it to the streets" in the backyard of Atlanta-based Cingular Corp. Beginning mid-November for a one-month time period, a traveling billboard will roll through the streets of downtown Atlanta morning, noon, and night, publicizing his lawsuit against the hometown giant which alleges fraud, deceptive trade practices, coercion, theft of customers, intimidation and contract violations. The suit seeks $25 million in damages for Kempner Mobile Electronics.

The roving message board promotes a Web site (www.cellulardealerlawsuit.com) for other independent wireless dealers and former employees to communicate and exchange information with one another who experienced similar business practices in dealing with Cingular.

"The way Cingular is attacking its independent dealers rivals any down-and-dirty corporation in America today - and that's pretty darn dirty," says Kempner, whose billboard features a photo of his three young children pleading for justice. "They told people - and I have it on audio tape - that my store was called Gillian Wireless and it's located in Roadhouse, Illinois. Do I have to tell you that my name isn't Gillian - and there's no such place as Roadhouse, Illinois?"

"Cingular is laying off 3,000 employees right now," the Chicagoan adds. "I hired this billboard because I believe we can gather considerable support from those folks who are also suffering because of Cingular's business practices."

Cingular, which has refused to comment on the case, already is the target of an investigation by the California Public Utility Commission. In what is believed to be the first investigation of a wireless carrier by a state utility regulator, CPUC began an inquiry last June into charges of unfair business practices by Cingular.

The Illinois Attorney General also is investigating Cingular and other major wireless carriers as several states coordinate efforts to address wide-ranging charges of deceptive marketing, poor customer service, and erroneous billing.

To help rally independent dealers, Kempner has set up a telephone hot line, along with the above Web site, for dealers and others to share their stories and legal advice. The documentation he has amassed to support his case tells a story he believes many others have experienced, he says.

"The paper trail Cingular has left in its dealings with me is explicit and extensive," Kempner says, offering audio tapes and folders crammed with correspondence, transcripts and other material documenting the damage to a business whose subscriber base approached $4 million in annual billed revenue.

Among his most telling documents is a tape of a telephone conversation in which a Cingular employee directs one of Kempner's longtime customers to conduct his business at a Cingular-owned store, rather than with Kempner, to obtain the pricing and services that Cingular advertised as available from Kempner and other independent dealers.

Kempner, who began in the wireless business in1989 as an exclusive dealer for Cingular's predecessor Cellular One, also learned from loyal customers that Cingular had sent his customers unsolicited new telephones, then "slammed" them by switching service to the new phone. This removed customers from Kempner's database and, effectively, from his business - even when they wanted to stay with Kempner.

Cingular also opened company-owned stores whose locations violated a protected three-mile radius around his store, Kempner says.

Kempner says his problems with Cingular began two years ago, after it was created as a joint venture of SBC Communications and Bell South. Previously an exclusive dealer for Cingular, Kempner has been forced to offer other companies' services in his Kempner Mobile Electronics stores.

The wireless industry has been largely unregulated during its initial period of rapid growth. As that growth has slowed, carriers have moved to maximize profits in various ways, including reducing their workforce and achieving vertical integration by squeezing the independent dealers who formerly provided the link between carrier and customer.

For more information about Scott Kempner's lawsuit against Cingular, please visit the website above.