Pac Bell, Southwestern Bell Sign with CheckFree

SBC Communications Inc. companies Pacific Bell and Southwestern
Bell signed with CheckFree for electronic
billing and payment for Customers in California, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas,
Arkansas and Kansas.

Customers in those states will be able to pay their bills at nearly 200 Web
sites that offer CheckFree’s electronic billing and payment services,
including the U.S. Postal Service, Yahoo!, Quicken, Quicken.com, BankOne and
Charles Schwab.

Once enrolled, Pacific Bell and Southwestern Bell customers receive two final
paper bills by mail and then all future bills will be sent electronically.
Customers can then view their bill on demand, review current and outstanding
account balances, access full bill
detail from their personal computer and contact their customer service
representatives via e-mail while online.

Electronic bill distribution and payments made to Southwestern Bell or
Pacific Bell will be processed by CheckFree Genesis 2000, a fully integrated
end-to-end electronic billing and payment engine. Financial arrangements
among the companies were not disclosed.

The CheckFree electronic billing and payment service also will be available
through
Southwestern Bell’s Web site and Pacific Bell’s Web site.

CheckFree said its services now enable 3.5 million consumers to receive and
pay bills over the Internet or electronically. The company has multi-year
contracts with 157
companies to provide online billing and payment.