MURRAY HILL, N.J., Tuesday, October 13, 1998 - Lucent Technologies and Allegiance Telecom, Inc. today announced that they have agreed to a five-year, $200 million contract for telecommunications products and services.

Allegiance will purchase Lucent switching, access and communications software products. Lucent also will provide engineering, installation, technical support and other professional services.

"Lucent offers a breadth of innovative products and services that meet our needs now and support our growth goals," said Dan Yost, president and chief operating officer of Allegiance.

Lucent's flagship product - the 5ESS AnyMedia^™ switch - is core to the contract with Allegiance. Also included is CONNECTVU switch configuration management software as well as access solutions such as the SLC 2000 Access System, AnyMedia Access FAST and AnyMedia Access Express.

The 5ESS switch is the industry's most reliable switch and has set new performance benchmarks for the industry, according to analysis of a Federal Communications Commission 1997 quality report. The 5ESS switch handles both voice and data traffic and serves as a gateway to today's popular data networks.

Bill Plunkett, Lucent's senior vice president of sales for competitive local exchange carriers, said, "Allegiance has a superb leadership team and is fast becoming a significant force in the largest U.S. markets. We're delighted to play a part in Allegiance's growth." Allegiance Telecom is a competitive local exchange carrier headquartered in Dallas. Allegiance offers businesses a complete package of telecommunications services, including local, long distance, international calling, high speed data transmission and Internet services. The Company is targeting 24 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. with its "one stop shopping" approach. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles and New York currently are in service.

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