CBIS and Telewest, plc sign contract for cable telephony management solution.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 1997--Telewest Communications plc, the second largest cable TV operator in the United Kingdom, and CBIS(R) a world leader in subscriber care and billing solutions, have signed a 5-year contract for CBIS's Integrated Communications Operations Management System (ICOMS). Telewest chose CBIS and its state-of-the-art ICOMS(TM) solution to support integrated cable TV and telephony subscriber management and billing for all seven of Telewest's franchises throughout the United Kingdom. Based on current estimates, the contract is expected to have a value of approximately US$ 35 million.

ICOMS is now being used to support a Telewest cable TV subscriber base of more than 200,000 and to provision more than 300,000 telephone lines through franchises in the North West and Midlands. Under terms of the contract, five new franchises will be added to the ICOMS service area, and the North West and Midlands systems will be enhanced. When fully implemented, CBIS's ICOMS solution will be supporting all of Telewest's subscribers.

"The CBIS ICOMS solution will be a vital component of our plans to gain a strong competitive advantage in the changing regulatory environment we face," said Richard H. Evans, senior vice president of IT for Telewest. "The choice of ICOMS was based on our belief that it will help us provide top-quality service to our customers, expand our market penetration, increase our revenues, and improve our profitability."

"This contract means CBIS will now be supporting all of Telewest's strong subscriber growth, leveraging our global communications experience in developing end-to-end solutions that support cable TV and telephony as well as the enhanced ability to render an integrated cable TV and telephone bill," said Robert J. Marino, CBIS president and CEO. "CBIS has a corporate commitment tased when a market-leading firm like Telewest signs a contract that recognizes this important CBIS commitmenthe modern cable operator's business including the provision of all telephony services. It features a single relational database to support both telephone and video service negotiation and trouble reporting for business or residential customers.

ICOMS also offers highly flexible implementation options via user definable controls, full integration of customer accounts, flexible telephone call processing routines, ease of use and responsiveness, flexible cycle billing, fully functional CATV interfaces including Pay Per View and Interactive Pay Per View, and telephony network facilities assignment. ICOMS runs on IBM mid-range hardware such as the AS/400, under the OS/400 operating system.

ABOUT TELEWEST COMMUNICATIONS plc

Telewest Communications plc is the leading UK cable operator with access to approximately 4.3 million homes and 300,000 businesses. Telewest's ordinary share capital is listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the US NASDAQ National Market System. As of 31 December 1996 Telewest had an equity interest in 528,142 cable television customers and 694,832 residential and business telephone lines. The principal shareholders of Telewest are Tele-Communications Inc., and US West Inc., each with 26.8 percent of the issued ordinary share capital, and Cox Communications Inc., and SBC Communications Inc., each of which owns approximately 10 percent of the issued ordinary share capital. The remainder of the issued ordinary share capital is held by public shareholders.

ABOUT CBIS

CBIS is Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, the global leader in the provision and management of customer care and billing solutions for the communications industry. CBIS software, running under license at client sites or in CBIS's state-of-the-art data centers, produces more than 300 million bills for cable TV, wireless and wireline telephony, and convergent services each year. CBIS is on the Internet at http://www.cbis.com

CBIS is a subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CSN), a $1.6 billion corporation which supplies telecommunications, information management, and marketing services. Other subsidiaries include Cincinnati Bell Telephone, a major, independent telephone company, and MATRIXX Marketing, the world's largest provider of telephone marketing services.

CBIS is a registered U.S. service mark and ICOMS is a trademark of Cincinnati Bell Information Systems Inc.

CONTACT: CBIS

John Pratt, 513/723-3669 or 800/327-3900

In the UK, free-call 0800.895.185

E-Mail: john.pratt(at sign)cbis.com