Verizon Wireless Introduces Five-State Home Calling Area For Las Vegas Customers

TEMPE, Arizona — Verizon Wireless is inviting Las Vegas consumers to "Take Five." Why settle for a home calling area the size of your local city or county when you can have one that includes five states? The company today introduced a new series of Digital Plus calling plans that allow Las Vegas area customers to travel throughout five Southwestern states, and use their included anytime minutes to make and receive calls - free of roaming charges.

With Verizon Wireless' five-state "Home Calling" area, included in the company's Digital Plus plans, wireless users can take their anytime minutes with them to conduct business in Los Angeles, take a road trip to Phoenix or vacation in Hawaii and use their included minutes for calls - all without roaming charges. In fact, every Digital Plus bundled minute is free of roaming charges anywhere in Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii. Long distance charges would only apply to calls to and from different local calling areas, for example: between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The company is also offering a choice of free unlimited nights and weekends or free long distance minutes on any Digital Plus 250 or above two-year calling plan.

"Just think of the savings - roaming charges, which before Digital Plus Home Calling, cost up to cost sixty cents per minute in Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Hawaii have been eliminated, allowing our digital customers to save money while using their phone anywhere in the five Southwestern states" said Regional President Jerry Gallegos.

In conjunction with the announcement of the five-state Home Calling Area, Verizon Wireless is making the popular Kyocera QCP-860 thin phone available free when customers choose any Digital Plus 250 or above two-year calling plan. The QCP-860 dual mode CDMA digital and analog handset is slim and light weight, making it comfortable and convenient for those who want to carry their phones with them wherever they go.

"We've found that most wireless users are frequent regional roamers," said Gallegos. "Starting at $19.99 our new Digital Plus plans provide a simple, affordable solution for our customers who wish to use their phone throughout the five Southwestern states."

The introduction of the Digital Plus Plans and five-state Home Calling Area offer is supported by a marketing campaign that breaks today in the Greater Las Vegas area, featuring radio and newspaper ads running through August 31, 2000.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 25 million wireless voice and data customers and nearly 4 million paging customers. The new coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE:BEL), Vodafone AirTouch Plc (LSE:VOD; NYSE:VOD), and GTE Corp. (NYSE:GTE). The new company includes the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless, PrimeCo Personal Communications and AirTouch Paging. The new company has a footprint covering nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population, 49 of the top 50 and 96 of the top 100 U.S. markets.

Verizon Wireless, headquartered in New York City and Bedminster, NJ, is 30,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company in its Media Center on the Web at: http://www.verizonwireless.com/mediacenter.

Editor's Note

Verizon Wireless, formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Bell Atlantic Corp., Vodafone AirTouch Plc, and GTE Corp., also incorporates the former ALLTEL property in Las Vegas.

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