Verizon Wireless extends EV-DO to New York

August 24, 2006

Verizon Wireless announced it has expanded its wide-area wireless broadband service to the Capital Region, giving local customers access to the latest high-speed business and entertainment services on their wireless phones, laptop computers and other wireless devices. BroadbandAccess and V CAST are also launching in the Buffalo-Niagara Region this week. Both markets join the Rochester and Syracuse markets where these services were launched last summer.

With the expansion, Verizon Wireless customers in the Capital Region are able to access the company's two wireless broadband services - BroadbandAccess and V CAST - while traveling throughout the cities of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls, as well as dozens of surrounding towns and villages.

V CAST is a consumer-oriented multimedia service that offers music and video content on demand, including news, weather and sports updates, clips from popular TV programs, music videos, movie trailers, 3D games, and more. With V CAST Music, customers can browse and download songs from the V CAST Music library directly onto their V CAST Music-enabled phone or Windows XP-enabled PC. The V CAST Music library contains more than 1.3 million songs.

Both services are based on the company's Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network technology.

"This expansion is part of our continuing focus on investing in our network reliability and providing innovative high-speed data services to our customers across the country and right here in Eastern New York," said Ken Dixon, president of Verizon Wireless' Upstate New York Region. "With BroadbandAccess, Capital Region mobile professionals and business customers will now be able to take their desktop experience with them, allowing them to wirelessly access their Microsoft Outlook calendars, the Internet, e-mail and critical business information residing behind corporate firewalls.

"With V CAST, consumers now have access to the most comprehensive selection of downloadable music, high-quality videos, and advanced gaming available."

Coverage

Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess coverage expansion in the Capital Region includes the area roughly from Lake George and Glens Falls down along the Northway through Saratoga Springs to Albany/Schenectady/Troy. (Customers who travel outside a BroadbandAccess coverage area with an EV-DO device will switch seamlessly to Verizon Wireless' existing NationalAccess network in which customers experience average data transmission speeds between 60 and 80 kbps, with bursts up to 144 kbps.)

Verizon Wireless has invested $30 billion into its network in the last six years - $5 billion on average every year since 2000 when the company was formed - to ensure network reliability and increase coverage and capacity.

Pricing

For a limited time, Verizon Wireless customers with a new or existing voice plan can receive unlimited BroadbandAccess service for $59.99 monthly access for Internet browsing, e-mail and intranet access. A new two-year customer agreement is required. For non-voice customers, BroadbandAccess is available for $79.99 monthly access with a new one- or two-year customer agreement. The company's BroadbandAccess service is also available as an integrated option on select notebook computers: Dell (Latitude 620 and 820), Lenovo (ThinkPad Z60, T60 and X60) and HP (Compaq nc6140).