Verizon Wireless Reports "Express Network" Success, Lays Groundwork for Rollout in 2002

BEDMINSTER, NJ — Solidifying its leadership position in bringing advanced, high-speed wireless data services to customers, Verizon Wireless reports promising results from participants in its Express Network preview, setting the stage for the planned commercial availability of its 1XRTT Express Network in the first half of 2002. A broad base of participants, including IBM, GE, Gateway, PacketVideo, GoAmerica Communications, Wireless Knowledge and Aether Systems, who used the Verizon Wireless Express Network in the preview, have lauded its speed and expanded capabilities and look forward to its commercial availability.

(Editors Note: A partial list of participants and direct quotes from participants follow.)

Verizon Wireless has long demonstrated its commitment to providing high-speed data services to its customers and over the last several years has invested significant resources to upgrade its current CDMA network to 1XRTT.

While some areas of the country already have Express Network capabilities deployed, Verizon Wireless is continuing to work with manufacturers in order to provide high-quality devices in significant numbers, in order to support commercial service. The preview demonstrated that popular business applications are compatible with the Express Network, and Verizon Wireless eagerly awaits the broad availability of 1XRTT-enabled devices.

Expansion of the Express Network is underway, with 20% of the company's overall footprint covered by the end of 2001. By mid-2002, a majority of the CDMA network will be upgraded.

"The excellent results achieved by the organizations participating in our Express Network preview represent another milestone in rolling out our advanced wireless network and accompanying data services," said Lowell McAdam, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Verizon Wireless. "We are committed to bringing the benefits of a higher speed network to all of our customers, and we have the right team in place under our Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton to achieve this goal. Verizon Wireless has long been a leader in launching innovative wireless data services, and we continue to work with manufacturers to ensure that high-quality commercially-available devices are readily available to support these important efforts."

The Express Network will offer significant benefits to customers. Verizon Wireless expects to consistently deliver between 40 and 60 kbps—higher than speeds generated from competing wireless technologies, and higher than what PC users get when they use dial-up Internet service at home. The Express Network will give consumers a richer Internet experience when browsing on their wireless devices, and should help increase productivity and efficiency given the scores of consumer and enterprise applications that may be available.

What Users are Saying About the Verizon Wireless Express Network

Organizations that participated* in the Express Network Preview:

• Aether Systems, Inc.
• Alter Ego
• Bozell
• Dechert
• EarthLink
• Emblaze Systems, Inc.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
• Gateway
• GE
• GoAmerica Communications
• IBM
• Itronix
• Media Systems
• OmniSky
• PacketVideo
• Philips
• Rohm & Haas
• SAP
• Sierra Wireless
• UPS
• Wireless Knowledge

* Partial list.

Aether Systems, Inc.
"Aether successfully tested Reuters MarketClip, one of our premier real-time wireless financial services, over the Express Network in Philadelphia," said Dale Shelton, Chief Technology Officer of Aether Systems, Inc. "The speed and bandwidth of the new network will allow Aether to roll out advanced wireless data applications to help professionals in any industry increase productivity and efficiency."

EarthLink
"Our Philadelphia trials with Verizon Wireless yielded very promising preliminary results in terms of speed and connection integrity," said Lance Weatherby, executive vice president of EarthLink's "EarthLink Everywhere" wireless and non-PC Internet access initiative. "In light of EarthLink's focus on providing consumers with the widest variety of wireline and wireless Internet access choices, Verizon Wireless' Express Network is a solid network prospect for delivering high-speed wireless connectivity to EarthLink Mobile Internet customers."

Emblaze Systems, Inc.
"The commercial capabilities demonstrated by the Verizon Wireless Express Network Preview enabled Emblaze Systems to showcase its carrier grade wireless media platform featuring applications such as multimedia messaging, video-on-demand and live streaming," said Sasson Darwish, president, Emblaze Systems, Inc. "Our work with Verizon Wireless reaffirmed that commercial deployment of multimedia applications is a reality today. We believe that wireless multimedia applications are one of the leading revenue generating categories for 2.5G and 3G networks and we are pleased that Verizon Wireless chose to work with us."

GoAmerica Communications
"Testing conducted in GoAmerica's Network Operating Center indicated excellent response rates and speeds up to 130 percent greater than some of today's existing wireless data networks," said Joe Korb, president of GoAmerica Communications. "We have worked closely with Verizon Wireless since we began providing wireless services in 1997 and look forward to integrating the 1X network into GoAmerica's next generation of wireless solutions for the enterprise."

OmniSky
"Access to the network was extremely quick, and Web browsing on the iPAQ proved to be very snappy. Overall we were very impressed by the user experience on the network," said Jorge Point, vice president of marketing at OmniSky.

"Consumers have been waiting for the arrival of the 2.5 and 3G networks. It is exciting that the networks are finally here. The Express Network will help to jumpstart the market," said Devon Johnson, vice president of operations at OmniSky. "The Express Network is delivering a quality experience that one would expect from a wireline connection. We were quite pleased with the Preview experience. Side-by-side comparisons to the CDPD network showed that the Express Network was up to 5 times faster!"

PacketVideo
"Verizon Wireless' launch of their next generation CDMA 1X network demonstrates their commitment to delivering advanced services to mobile consumers," said Ed Knapp, chief technology officer for PacketVideo. "Through extensive testing with Verizon Wireless and its vendors at streaming speeds greater than 100 kbps, PacketVideo has validated that the Express Network is an excellent platform for the delivery of compelling wireless multimedia applications."

"The preview provided a terrific opportunity for our third party developers to showcase rich media applications with one of the premier operators in the country," said Robert Tercek, president of PacketVideo's applications & services division. "The increased speed offered through Verizon Wireless' Express Network enables our developer partners to deliver rich media applications such as news, personal video and interactive maps to mobile users at very high quality."

Philips MP4Net
"Thanks to excellent collaboration between Verizon Wireless and Philips during the Express Network preview, we have been able to demonstrate the viability of multimedia applications over cdma2000 mobile networks. The range of applications included ISO-compliant MPEG-4 standards-based pre-encoded and live Multimedia-on-demand, and next-generation interactive applications adjusted to suit the characteristics of the wireless network. Philips looks forward to further collaboration on this front to identify mobile consumer behavior and build suitable multimedia applications based on our MPEG-4 platform that can scale and translate that to increased data-services revenue per subscriber for Verizon Wireless," said Shailendra Jain, Chief Operating Officer, Philips MP4Net.

Wireless Knowledge, Inc.
"Our participation in the Verizon Wireless Express Network Preview validates that high-speed wireless technologies will enable powerful new business scenarios made possible by the new capabilities and higher performance. Wireless Knowledge offers comprehensive enterprise mobility solutions that take maximum advantage of existing networks while properly preparing customers to quickly adopt new 3G CDMA technologies. The Express Network will allow enterprise customers to solve financially justified business problems while delivering wireless solutions that meet the real-world usability expectations of employees and customers. Through our collective mission, Verizon Wireless and Wireless Knowledge are prepared to introduce 3G solutions that support enterprise groupware, SFA, CRM, and a host of new applications that will connect mobile workers wirelessly to the information that drives their businesses." Jeff Ross, vice president of marketing, Wireless Knowledge, Inc.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 28.7 million wireless voice and data customers. The coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Verizon Wireless has a footprint covering more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, 49 of the top 50 and 97 of the top 100 U.S. markets. The company, headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, is 40,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com.

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