Cingular Response to Katrina - Clean Up Plans

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Coverage Continues to Improve Along the Gulf; Hundreds of Technicians Focused on Restoration Coverage for cell phone customers on the Cingular network in those areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina continues to dramatically improve. Service in Mobile, Jackson, Pensacola and Baton Rouge is back to normal. Crews are on the ground in New Orleans and some calls are going through in the New Orleans and Hammond areas. New Orleans continues to remain our top priority, and we have hundreds of technicians working to restore full service as quickly as possible.

Cingular also continues to make substantial progress in completely restoring Biloxi, Meridien, Hattiesburg and Gulfport. Customers are still able to send and receive calls in these affected areas but at reduced levels. Since many of the remaining service outages are primarily due to power and T1 lines, we are working very closely with wireline and power companies and deploying generators in those affected areas.

Restorations efforts are being executed out of the company's four staging areas located in Mobile (AL), Port Allen (LA), Lafayette and Tickfaw (LA).Emergency restoration crews are using back up generators and more than 30 COWs (Cells on Wheels) are available for use in affected areas. The company is also using microwave and satellite connections to restore service in parts of the city and is re-rerouting calls outside the city as possible.

Recovery Statistics:

* Overall 500 generators and 240,000 gallons of fuel
* Ninety generators at impacted sites-18 in Louisiana, 48 in Alabama, and 24 in Mississippi.
* More than 100 recovery crews involved in restoration.
* Helicopters conducting aerial surveys.
* More than 1,000 phones loaned to emergency agencies throughout the Gulf States.

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