Iusacell Inaugurates Two World-Class Call Centers, First Digital Switching Center

PHILADELPHIA —

Flanked by leading Mexican federal and state government officials Fülvio del Valle, President and General Director of Iusacell, Mexico's leading independent provider of wireless telecommunications services, recently inaugurated two new customer service centers that for the first time consolidate all support for its cellular, paging, rural telephony and long distance services customers.

Simultaneously, the company - a Bell Atlantic wireless investment - also cut the ribbon on its new $30 million digital switching office in Tlalnepantla, as part of a $200 million network modernization project that will introduce Mexican customers to the benefits of digital CDMA (code division multiple access) technology when the service is commercially introduced by mid year.

The new call centers, which are integral to Iusacell's launch of digital service, mark the first time a telecommunications provider in Mexico will be able to support customer inquiries for a complete line of products and services, including wireless voice and data, messaging, local and long distance.

"The building of these centers exemplifies, without a single doubt, our investment commitment for the country and our determination to bring to the Mexican market the most advanced high technology systems and services, the very same that are enjoyed by other countries around the world," said del Valle.

The Naucalpan center will be staffed with almost 400 service consultants, who will field customer inquiries on roaming, billing, payment, and service bundles. The center will also handle *911 emergency calls, as well as telemarketing new service options to Iusacell's customer base. A fully- redundant fiber optic loop links the center to the local telephone network, ensuring continuity of service, and a Nortel automatic call distributor (ACD) will provide Iusacell with the ability to efficiently and quickly manage incoming call traffic.

The Leon call center, which will provide the same level of customer service, will initially be staffed by 100 consultants, with a possible expansion to 300. The Iusacell fiber network also links the two customer service centers together, and the two locations combined will serve all of the company's customers in Mexico.

During the Leon grand opening ceremony del Valle also announced that the company would support a local state government initiative whereby Iusacell agreed to install cellular telecommunications devices in rural isolated communities for emergency communications purposes.

Technical and management support for the customer service and digital network improvements is being provided by employees from Bell Atlantic International Wireless, part of the Bell Atlantic Global Wireless Group.

Grupo Iusacell is the leading independent telecommunications company in Mexico, providing cellular telephone, paging, long distance, data and local telephony service in central four regions of the country covering 66 million people, or 70 per cent of the country's population. On May 12 Iusacell won PCS (Personal Communications Services) licenses covering 10 million potential customers in two key northern regions of Mexico, which will enable the company to expand its brand of wireless services to 81 percent of the population.

Bell Atlantic is one of the world's largest wireless communications companies, with domestic operations in 25 states and international investments spanning Latin America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For information on our global operations, visit http://www.bellatlantic.com/worldwide.

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