We do not believe that growth simply means getting bigger; rather, we aim to deliver greater value to the markets we know best, using existing sales channels and building on previously established customer relationships. For ALLTEL Communications, this means providing consumers and businesses with a total package of competitively priced products and services, all delivered, supported and billed via a single point of contact. At ALLTEL Information Services, it means delivering, through our proprietary software and computing solutions, measurable business value and technology that works for our customers.

As the competitive focus of our industry moves away from centralized functions toward network access, client/server computing and other customer-centered activities, everyone in the industry is faced with a simple choice. Either offer higher value through service integration, customization and faster response times, or risk losing the customer because price is no longer the only factor.

At ALLTEL, our technologies and business processes are designed for higher value. They allow us to simplify, not complicate, our offer to the customer. They have already helped us achieve one of the industry's lowest costs for wireless customer acquisition. And by enabling us to cross-sell additional products and services without significant duplication of effort, they help us increase our share of each customer's total communications and information technology spending.

Following the completed 360° Communications merger and announced Aliant merger, our business is even stronger, and our potential for growth even greater. The strength of our underlying strategy, and the commitment of our employees to make it work, was evidenced by the fact that we completed the merger - including the integration of more than 4,000 former 360° Communications employees - without an adverse effect on earnings from current businesses. And with the majority of our communications customers now wireless users - a group that has consistently shown itself most likely to buy and benefit from multiple communications services - we can add value today with our extended service offerings and can continue to add value in the future as we roll out our bundled services to more markets.

Leading our company is a strong team who brings together a wealth of knowledge from the information technology and communications industries. On the following pages, we present a few of these leaders and their thoughts on how they bring the Power to Simplify to life for our customers.

Combine this leadership and commitment with our strategic acquisitions of complementary geographic wireless and wireline properties, the ongoing development of our fiber network and our in-house information technology expertise, and I believe it is difficult to deny that we now have the ideal platform from which to launch into the 21st century.