PRESS RELEASE

$4.5M Jury Award to Apartment Owner:

AT&T/TCI Liable for Forging Apartment Property Owner's Signature

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 AT&T/TCI was found liable in United States District Court on the charge of committing forgery with intent to defraud by forging the signature of Houston area apartment owner, T. David O'Brien, III. The Cable Television Easement and Maintenance Agreement to which the signature was forged, forced O'Brien into allowing AT&T/TCI to continue serving the property, thereby effectively removing his opportunities to negotiate for services with AT&T/TCI's competitors.

The forgery became evident to O'Brien and Larry Kessler of InteliCable in December 1996. This occurred while Kessler was attempting to research and negotiate new cable contracts for O'Brien, with AT&T/TCI's competitors.

On December 5, 1996, during a conversation with Roswell Moore, III of the cable company, to clarify that it did not have a current contract binding O'Brien's property, Moore told Kessler that InteliCable's research was incorrect and that the Company was in fact holding an contract signed by O'Brien in 1995. Kessler immediately contacted O'Brien to inform him of the situation. However, O'Brien stated he had never signed an contract with the company in 1995 or any other time.

To bring resolution to the matter, O'Brien faxed a "signed" request for a copy of the contract, per the request of Moore. O'Brien did so, using a non-authentic signature. Approximately two hours later, a faxed copy of the contract was sent by Moore. To O'Brien's astonishment, the document was signed with a signature strikingly similar to the non-authentic signature used in his fax request two hours earlier.

Signature used by O'Brien In his fax request	Signature on the Contract faxed by Moore	O'Brien's Legal Signature

Immediately upon receiving the forged document, both O'Brien and Kessler attempted to resolve the situation with Moore and several others, including its Chief Legal Counsel. These attempts were made from December of 1996 through January of 1998.

With each attempt the Company refused to acknowledge the forgery and continued enforcing its right to serve the apartment property. It was only after more than a year and several attempts to resolve the situation and receiving no response from the Company, that O'Brien was forced to file a lawsuit alleging the forgery.

During the course of this case, in addition to O'Brien's forged contract, contracts of at least three other apartment complex owners were identified as forgeries. The property owners were contacted and the notaries also testified that both their signatures and seals were forged.

"This situation is precisely why state legislatures and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must continue to make rulings in favor of private cable operators serving the multihousing industry," said Kessler. "During discovery, we requested 37 contracts from TCI. They produced six of them. Five of the six contracts were determined to be forged. Even though these types of events may be isolated, they are the result of monopolistic business practices. The current franchise cable and incumbent telephone companies have become too large and far too unaccountable. They are losing their incentive to be fair and provide good service. The only possible check and balance to be put in place is competition, so long as such competition is at the property owner's election and is not forced. To date, there is no record of AT&T/TCI contacting the other owners, offering a good faith attempt in canceling the forged contracts and negotiating new ones."

Under the jury instruction of "Do you find, by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm," the jury answered "Yes." The jury promptly delivered an award in the amount of more than $4.5 million. Presiding United States District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore did not reduce the jury's award.

Civil Action No. H-99-1327; In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division

Cause No. 98-07242; Meadow Park Partners and T. David O'Brien, III v. TCI TKR of Houston, Inc.; In the District Court of Harris County, Texas, 133rd Judicial District

Contacts for interviews:

T. David O'Brien, III Property Owner (713) 464-2258 obcc9432@aol.com

Larry D. Kessler Telecommunications Expert (843) 884-1101, ext. 11 lkessler@intelicable.com

O'Brien's Legal Counsel Jerry V. Walker, Jr., Attorney at Law Jerry V. Walker, Sr., Attorney at Law (713) 523-8083 jwalker@meyerorlando.com

AT&T/TCI's Legal Counsel Jerome J. Kashinski, Attorney at Law

AT&T Broadband and Internet Services (303) 267-4343 kashinski.jerry@broadband.att.com

R. Paul Yetter, Attorney at Law (713) 238-2002