Business Services Industry

AT&T Announces New Contract with The Metropolitan Educational Council of Ohio; Customized Ethernet Services Provide Unified Network for 160 Schools and Related Agencies

Business Wire, April 14, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced a new contract with the Metropolitan Educational Council (MEC), a consortium of school districts, libraries and related agencies in the greater central Ohio area.

Under the terms of the six-year contract, AT&T will deliver a Customized Switched Metro Ethernet (CSME) service that will connect 160 schools and related agencies to a single network for increased security and reliability. The new network will provide expanded bandwidth to support additional educational applications, such as video distance learning. Additionally, the network will allow for secure transmission of detailed student records through a unified process for data transfer.

With these advanced applications, MEC will have the ability to deliver reliable services to all of its schools, libraries and related educational facilities for an enhanced learning environment. The CSME solution will also provide disaster-recovery services for increased security and redundancy of the network.

This solution aligns with AT&T's convergence strategy, which will enable MEC and its facilities to support bandwidth-intensive applications at faster Internet connection speeds through a converged network infrastructure. AT&T is the primary provider of voice and data services for MEC.

"We required a provider capable of seamlessly expanding our bandwidth to help meet the networking needs of our 160 facilities," said Greg Spencer, director of Data Processing, Metropolitan Educational Council. "Using AT&T's CSME solution, we can allow our business needs, not our network limitations, to drive our IT strategy."

About the Metropolitan Educational Council

The Metropolitan Educational Council (MEC) is a consortium of school districts and related agencies in the greater central Ohio area. The primary mission of the council is to contribute to the educational services made available to the youth and adults by the cooperative action of the membership. MEC currently has 160 member schools, libraries, and related agencies.

About the New AT&T

AT&T Inc. is one of the world's largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, AT&T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high-speed DSL Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT&T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with more than 54 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at www.TheNewATT.com.