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Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless Customers Capture and Share Special Moments Quickly and Conveniently ATLANTA and REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Two leading wireless carriers, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, announced the first agreement to offer intercarrier Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Starting today, Cingular and AT&T Wireless customers can share multimedia messages with each other from their wireless phones.With the growing popularity of camera phones and MMS-capable devices, the companies believe that this move will mark the beginning of a much broader industry trend. Both companies cite cross-carrier text messaging as a major reason for the explosive growth in text messaging over the past two years, and they view cross-carrier MMS as an essential element for widespread adoption of this service as well. "It is vital to Cingular to allow our customers to share multimedia messages with as many other wireless customers as possible. Offering intercarrier MMS with AT&T Wireless is an important first step in moving towards industry-wide intercarrier MMS," said Matt Kaiser, Director of Multimedia Messaging, Cingular Wireless. "Today's announcement builds on our legacy of innovation in messaging services," said Glenice Maclellan, vice president of messaging services at AT&T Wireless. "In late 2001, AT&T Wireless was the first to introduce cross-carrier text messaging, and the following summer, we introduced the first MMS-capable camera phone in the US. Our launch with Cingular is the first critical step towards enabling our customers to share their pictures and MMS messages with friends and family -- regardless of carrier." Cingular and AT&T Wireless both support a wide selection of MMS-capable phones. For a list of MMS-capable phones, MMS pricing, and additional information, please visit the companies' respective websites http://www.cingular.com/mms and http://www.attwireless.com/ . ABOUT CINGULAR WIRELESS Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth , serves more than 25 million voice and data customers across the United States. A leader in mobile voice and data communications, Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(SM), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Cingular is the largest provider of GSM services in the United States, and has a 100 percent digital GSM/GPRS footprint across its service area. It also launched the world's first commercial deployment of wireless services using Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology. Cingular also provides corporate e-mail and other advanced data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data networks. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/ . Get Cingular Wireless press releases e-mailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://www.cingular.com/newsroom . ABOUT AT&T WIRELESS AT&T Wireless is the second-largest wireless carrier, based on revenues, in the United States. With 21.737 million subscribers as of June 30, 2004, and revenues of more than $16.8 billion over the past four quarters, AT&T Wireless delivers advanced high-quality mobile wireless communications services, voice and data, to businesses and consumers, in the U.S. and internationally. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by management with information that is currently available to management. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, management's expectations regarding: our future financial and operating performance and financial condition, including the company's outlook for the fiscal year 2004 and subsequent periods; the outcome of our pending transaction with Cingular; subscriber growth; industry conditions; the strength of our balance sheet; our liquidity and needs for additional financing; and our ability to increase revenue, margins and operating free cash flow. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside AT&T Wireless' control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Without limitation these factors include: the risks associated with the implementation of our technology migration strategy, uncertainty concerning the effects of our pending transaction with Cingular, our ability to continue to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of our distribution channels, the potential competitive impacts of industry consolidation or alternative technologies, potential impacts on revenue and ARPU from competitive pricing and slowing penetration in the wireless industry, the effects of vigorous competition in the markets in which we operate, the risk of decreased consumer spending due to softening economic conditions, acts of terrorism, and consumer response to new service offerings. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see AT&T Wireless' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the information under the heading "Additional Factors That May Affect Our Business, Future Operating Results and Financial Condition" and "Forward Looking Statements" in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2004. Cingular Wireless CONTACT: Kelleigh Scott of Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-6321, [email protected] ; or Jeremy Pemble of AT&T Wireless,+1-206-580-5997 , or [email protected] Web site: http://www.cingular.com/http://www.cingular.com/mmshttp://www.attwireless.com/ht tp://www.cingular.com/newsroom |