GTE Airfone Signs Contracts to Provide Bloomberg InvestorPhone and the Weather Channel Information Services On Aircraft Equipped With Airfone Service

Business Wire, Oct 21, 1998

OAK BROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1998--GTE Airfone(R) today announced a collaboration with Bloomberg InvestorPhone(TM) and The Weather Channel(R) to supply aircraft equipped with Airfone Service with two new dial-up in-flight features.

"Airfone's consumer target, the frequent business traveler, values up-to-the-minute information services while in transit. Financial news and weather updates are especially relevant and time-critical for this customer. Bloomberg and The Weather Channel, which provide breaking information and are well-known leaders in their field, are valuable additions to Airfone's service offerings," said Gregory O'Neill, director, Consumer Marketing-GTE Airfone. He added, "We anticipate that passengers will take immediate advantage of these two new features, especially on East Coast shuttle routes where financial experts frequently travel."

To access these features, the passenger simply releases the Airfone handset located on aircraft seatbacks. The Bloomberg InvestorPhone and The Weather Channel options are listed on the handset's main menu.

Once the customer makes the selection, prompts are given to begin the interactive tour of either Bloomberg InvestorPhone or The Weather Channel.

Bloomberg InvestorPhone Access

Bloomberg InvestorPhone service is interactive and allows the customer to choose among several menu options. Information, updated every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, reflects the latest financial and business market news.

"Bloomberg is committed to digital telephony because it capitalizes on fully adopted technology with critical mass penetration and unlimited bandwidth for high speed delivery of content," said Andrew Ellenberg, product manager of Bloomberg InvestorPhone. "This distribution agreement with GTE Airfone is a natural extension of Bloomberg's mission to provide 24-hour access to investment-critical information," Ellenberg said.

With the new service, customers may choose from the following:

-- Wall Street Interviews

-- Financial Market Updates

-- Top Business Headlines

-- Traffic and Weather Reports (New York City and Metro Area)

-- Sports Commentary

-- Bloomberg Corporate Tours

The Weather Channel Access

"As the provider of 1-900-Weather service for many years, The Weather Channel is proud to be a partner with GTE Airfone. Frequent travelers are a natural target for the services The Weather Channel offers. From now on, travelers need never be surprised again by unexpected weather at their destination." said Jody Fennell, director-New Business Development, The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel will provide timely weather forecasts, updated every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week (more often if severe weather occurs). The Weather Channel is interactive, allowing the customer to enter the area code of the city in question to hear the current forecast.

Customers may choose from the following:

-- 1,300 United States Cities

-- 300 International Cities

-- Local Conditions

-- Current Conditions and Forecasts for Canada

-- Specialized Reports: Storms, Ski Conditions, Driving Conditions

The rate for each of these services -- The Weather Channel and for Bloomberg is $1.99 for the set-up fee and $1.99 per minute. These discounted rates reflect a savings of approximately 40% from the standard per-minute Airfone rates.

Bloomberg InvestorPhone and The Weather Channel services are currently being deployed on all 3,000 commercial and private corporate aircraft equipped with Airfone Service from GTE, with fleet completion by November 1998.

"We look forward to working with Bloomberg and The Weather Channel to bring these two high-quality and timely services to GTE Airfone customers. This is exactly the kind of product that helps us attract and retain business travelers. We think they will appreciate and use these services to keep themselves current," said O'Neill.

As the market leader in airline passenger communications systems, GTE Airfone, www.gteairfone.com, based in Oak Brook, Ill., has long-term contracts to provide in-flight telephone service to more than 3,000 commercial and private corporate aircraft representing 11 North American carriers and numerous major corporations. GTE Airfone is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GTE Corporation, www.gte.com, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world.

Bloomberg Financial Markets, founded in 1981, is a global multi-media based distributor of information services, combining news, data and analysis for financial markets and businesses.

Bloomberg provides real-time pricing, historical pricing, indicative data, analytics and electronic communications 24 hours a day through over 102,000 BLOOMBERG(TM) systems used by over 250,000 financial professionals in 100 countries worldwide. Bloomberg News, with 900 reporters in 80 bureaus, is live 24 hours over the BLOOMBERG(TM) system and is carried in over 850 newspapers worldwide. Bloomberg also produces a number of related print and electronic media products for distribution in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America, Australia and Asia. These include Bloomberg Television programming, WBBR Bloomberg News Radio network, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Personal Finance magazines, The Bloomberg Web Site, www.bloomberg.com, and the Bloomberg Press Line of investment books.