PRESS RELEASE

January 28, 1998

Illinois Selects Number Pooling Administrator

On Monday, January 26^th, the Illinois members of the Midwest Limited Liability Corporation announced the selection of Lockheed Martin as the Interim Number Pooling Administrator in Illinois. This position is needed to support a trial of number pooling within the 847 NPA, which is currently slated to begin on April 1, and will last about six months. On November 18^th, a Request For Proposal (RFP) had been issued, seeking bidders for the administrator function, which will be responsible for managing, allocating and replenishing numbering resources within the pool. Although the immediate need was to select a Pooling Administrator for the 847 trial, it is anticipated that, if the trial proves successful, the Administrator could perform a similar function for pooling within other NPAs both in Illinois and other states within the Ameritech region. Two proposals had been submitted in response to the RFP.

Lockheed Martin IMS is a leading provider of sole-source, third-party services to the telecommunications industry. Through the nation’s first-of-its-kind Number Portability Administration Center in Chicago, the company’s Communications Industry Services provides local number portability services to carriers serving local telephone customers in the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast and Southwest—four regions encompassing 24 states and seven of the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas. Beginning January 19^th, Lockheed Martin IMS also assumed responsibility as the new North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA). As NANPA administrator, the company oversees the assignment of area codes, carrier identification codes and other numbering resources throughout the United States, Canada, Bermuda and 16 Caribbean countries.

Contacts: Brian Baldwin (Ameritech)

847-248-5324

Greg Roberts (Lockheed)

202-414-3562