ASCEND SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH ALLTEL SUPPLY

ALAMEDA, CA, FEB. 20, 1996 -- Ascend Communications Inc., (NASDAQ: ASND)
announced today a distribution agreement with ALLTEL Supply, a wholly
owned subsidiary of ALLTEL Corporation (NYSE:AT). ALLTEL Supply will
distribute the entire line of Ascend products including the MAX, Pipeline
and Multiband product families.

"We initially sought out Ascend because of the company's considerable
background integrating both analog and digital services across the public
network," said Ray Gunti, president of ALLTEL Supply. "We were initially
interested in Ascend's MAX and Pipeline products, and became attracted to
the entire product line and the company itself. Today our customers need
not only products, but a strong core of individuals to bring them into the
world of telecommunications."

"The agreement with ALLTEL Supply aligns us with a leading nationwide
distributor of telecommunications products," said Bernie Schneider, vice
president of marketing at Ascend. "Their distribution network is an
extremely valuable extension of the market for our equipment. Not only
will ALLTEL Supply distribute Ascend products to its customers, which
include end users and independent telephone companies, but the company
also intends to use them within ALLTEL corporation's other divisions for
remote access, disaster recovery, videoconferencing, and other
applications."

In addition, ALLTEL Supply will market Ascend products to Internet service
providers and to other divisions of ALLTEL Corporation including
ALLTELTelephone Services, ALLTEL Mobile, ALLTEL Information Services,
ALLTEL Publishing, and HWC Distribution Corp.

Gunti added: "The 1980s saw a demand for private networks with dedicated
circuits from telephone companies. In the '90s, we are seeing a return to
the public network and bandwidth on demand. Today, keeping up with the
technologies necessary to maintain the customer's network can be quite a
burden. End users are turning to the telecommunications companies to
operate their network, allowing customers to focus on their applications.
The basis of Ascend products is a switching architecture that lends itself
to the current environment where data and voice transmissions can be
equally supported. The expansion of telecommuting, distance learning,
telemedicine and the Internet requires Ascend's switching and routing
technology to deliver bandwidth on demand."

ALLTEL Supply, located in Norcross, Ga., is one of the nation's leading
providers of telecommunications and data products. ALLTEL Supply offers
more than 35,000 products from 500 different manufacturers through a
highly professional sales team and network of nationwide warehouses and
over-the-counter sales facilities. In addition, ALLTEL Supply offers
consulting services. ALLTEL Corporation is a provider of
telecommunications and information services.

Ascend Communications, Inc. develops, manufactures, markets, sells and
supports a broad range of high-speed digital wide area network access
products. The Company's products use inverse multiplexing or bandwidth on
demand for applications such as telecommuting, remote access, Internet
access and multimedia access.

Ascend is headquartered at:
1275 Harbor Bay Parkway
Alameda, Calif. 94502.
Phone: 800-621-9578; fax 510-214-2300;
E-mail: info@ascend.com.
Ascend's World Wide Web address is http://www.ascend.com.
 
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