Ameritech Uses Lucent Technologies Hardware and Software for Privacy Protection Services

Business Wire, Sept 23, 1998

MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 23, 1998--Lucent Technologies today announced that it is providing the network hardware and software for Ameritech's new Privacy Manager with Sales Screener service, which give customers more control over incoming calls.

Ameritech's Privacy Manager with Sales Screener-introduced yesterday in Chicago and Detroit-is a breakthrough service that enables residential customers to easily and quickly reject unwanted telemarketing and other unwanted calls.

Privacy Manager will be the first service Ameritech will offer through Lucent's new intelligent network platform, called Compact Service Node/Intelligent Peripheral (CSN/IP). The platform enables Ameritech and other service providers to create and offer a variety of new services to their customers. The three-year, multimillion dollar agreement between the two companies makes Ameritech the first customer for the new platform designed by Lucent's Bell Labs.

"Lucent's hardware and software enables Ameritech to quickly and efficiently offer these new privacy features," said Dave Geary, regional vice president for Lucent Technologies. "Consumers want these options, and we worked with Ameritech to meet the need."

Lucent introduced the CSN/IP platform in March and Ameritech tested it for three months. In addition to the Privacy Manager features, Lucent's CSN/IP enables service providers to offer its customers other advanced features such as voice-activated dialing, message delivery service and intelligent personal agent.

Message delivery service calls the customer to deliver basic information about calls that have come in. Intelligent personal agent follows a customer's spoken instructions to forward calls to another number, take a message or place a call.

Business customers can use the CSN/IP platform to access and update a set of announcements tailored to meet their individual needs automatically and without expensive manual procedures.

The CSN/IP supports a complete complement of voice, data, messaging and multimedia features so that service providers can quickly combine and integrate a wireless, wireline or Internet service provider's network and deliver services such as speech recognition, text-to-speech, fax services and recorded announcements.

The platform's support of Internet protocols enables it to bridge voice and data networks. Information from the Internet can be retrieved and delivered to anyone on the telephone. Conversely, voice calls and data from the switched network can be delivered to emerging data networks.

Lucent's CSN/IP platform-installed in the service provider's central offices and administrative centers-consists of:

- Compact Service Node (CSN) - recognizes and responds to customer

requests for services. Lucent's CSN supports nearly all brands of

wireline and wireless call-routing switches in service providers'

networks.

- Intelligent Peripheral (IP) Manager - collects and stores

digitized information about services available to each customer;

- Service Control Point (SCP) - works in conjunction with the CSN

to collect information about calls and tell the IP Manager how to

handle each call.

Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services, including local and long distance telephone, cellular, paging, security, cable TV, Internet and more. One of the world's 100 largest companies, Ameritech (www.ameritech.com) has 72,000 employees, 1 million shareowners and more than $29 billion in assets.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. For more information about Lucent Technologies, visit the company's web site at http://www.lucent.com.