Verizon Wireless Celebrates Opening of Second Communications Store in Asheville

ASHEVILLE, NC — Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless communications provider, today announced it will hold a celebration to mark the grand opening of its second communications store in Asheville.

From Monday, April 16 until Saturday, April 21, wireless customers in the Asheville area are invited to visit the communications store, located at 1918 Hendersonville Road, to take advantage of giveaways and to register to win a digital phone.

On Friday, April 20 at 11 a.m., Mayor Leni Sitnick will join Russell Stokes, store manager, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. As part of the ceremony, Verizon Wireless will donate a digital phone and service to HelpMate, an organization that provides services for victims of domestic violence in Asheville. Valerie Collins, executive director of HelpMate, will also be on-hand to help Stokes kick off a phone-recycling program that will begin Friday, April 20 and will continue until Thursday, May 31. During this time, wireless phone customers may recycle their old, unused wireless phones by bringing their equipment (phone, battery and charger) into the communications store. Verizon Wireless staff will test, reprogram and donate the phones to HelpMate to help provide victims of domestic violence with a tamper-proof lifeline at the touch of a button.

On Saturday, April 21, customers are invited to enjoy free food and beverages and several giveaways, with KSF-FM broadcasting live from 9 a.m. to noon and ZLS-FM broadcasting live from noon to 3 p.m.

"We invite Asheville-area residents to visit our second convenient location and enjoy all of the grand opening celebration activities we have planned for their benefit," said Stokes. "We also encourage customers who visit the store to put their old, unused wireless phones to work for the good of the community by donating to our phone-recycling program."

Like the original store location, at 16 G Regent Park Road, the new store location offers the complete range of Verizon Wireless services including the popular SingleRate^SM plans that offer one low rate with no roaming or long distance charges and a premier line of digital wireless phones and accessories. Mobile Web, the company's wireless Internet-access service, is also available. The service provides easy-to-use access to the Internet and the option to customize information delivered to the handset.

The new 2,600 square-foot communications store is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; on Sunday, 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. A staff of full-time professionals is on hand to help customers make decisions about calling plans and select phones and accessories, including headsets and hands-free devices featured on the communications store's "Safety Wall".

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with 27.5 million wireless voice and data customers. The new coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp -- now Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) -- and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). The new company includes the assets of Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless, PrimeCo Personal Communications and AirTouch Paging. The 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 Bedminster, NJ, is 38,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com.

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