Finish Line Picks AT&T

INDIANAPOLIS -- AT&T announced today it has won a multi-million dollar contract from The Finish Line Inc., the nationwide athletic footwear retailer, for an extensive portfolio of data and voice networking services. In winning the three-year contract, AT&T supplants WorldCom and regional carriers that previously provided voice services to Finish Line stores.

AT&T will integrate local and long-distance data and voice services at Finish Line's Indianapolis headquarters and more than 500 retail stores across the U.S. through its industry-leading AT&T Business Network (ABN) offer. With ABN, Finish Line can consolidate its full range of data and voice communications needs into a single contract, with a single bill and discounts across all services.

"We've opened almost 300 stores over the past seven years and our information technology systems have become increasingly complex," said Finish Line CIO Don Courtney. "In the past, we've worked with multiple regional telecommunications providers, and the costs to implement and manage our innovative systems have continued to rise. With AT&T as a national provider for our communications services, we're able to standardize and streamline processes to reduce costs and improve the quality of service we provide to our customers."

Finish Line expects to gain efficiencies by consolidating local and long- distance voice services currently provided by several carriers. Additionally, Finish Line will increase the reliability of its network by consolidating all voice and data traffic to its headquarters onto a high-speed, high-capacity fiber-optic "ring." The fiber ring supports Finish Line's business continuity plan by automatically rerouting traffic around cable cuts or network damage in milliseconds, helping ensure uninterrupted access to mission-critical applications and information in the event of a disaster.

Finish Line became the second largest mall-based U.S. athletic retailer in 2002 and has continued growing with the addition of 58 stores in 2003. The company runs sophisticated inventory and business control systems over an AT&T-provided wide area network that enables the company to deliver superior product choice and availability to its customers.

"Customers expect AT&T to deliver comprehensive solutions to improve performance and reliability, reduce business expense, and simplify processes," said AT&T sales vice president Dave Bossung. "Winning Finish Line's business tells me we were successful in meeting its unique business requirements for systems making it more efficient and less likely to suffer network disruptions."

AT&T Corp.