Verizon Wireless Launches High-Speed Broadband Service; Broadband Access First Rolls Out To South Florida, Tampa Bay Customers

TAMPA, FL — Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless company, announced today the launch of BroadbandAccess, a high-speed wireless broadband service, in select national markets including South Florida and the Tampa Bay area.

Powered by an Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) third generation (3G) wide-area network, BroadbandAccess is the fastest commercially available high-speed wide-area network in the nation, with typical user speeds of 300-500 kilobits per second (kbps), and capable of reaching speeds in excess of 2.0 mbps.

BroadbandAccess provides mobile workers full access to their corporate information, just as if they were attached via a high-speed wired connection, but with the freedom of true mobility. Developed with a range of users in mind, BroadbandAccess allows large enterprises, small-medium businesses and mobile professionals to conduct business anytime, anywhere in the BroadbandAccess coverage area via a secure, reliable, true high-speed data connection.

In South Florida, Verizon Wireless has an initial Broadband Access footprint that stretches from North Palm Beach south to Coral Gables in Miami, and west along the State Road 441 corridor. Broadband Access also will be available in Key West. In Tampa Bay, the service now covers north to Land O'Lakes and east to Brandon, with coverage to the west and south throughout most of Pinellas County, including Clearwater, downtown St. Petersburg and the beaches. The company expects to expand its BroadbandAccess network across Florida in coming months.

"BroadbandAccess is another great step in wireless technology here in Florida," said Mike Lanman, Florida region president of Verizon Wireless. "Investing in this network and know-how allows us to offer wireless consumers here the best and fastest voice and data services anywhere."

In addition to its ongoing annual capital investment program to build network capacity and coverage, Verizon Wireless expects to invest $1 billion over the next two years to deploy its EV-DO technology nationally. For the past four years, Verizon Wireless has committed $4 billion annually to its capital investment program.

Working with virtual private network (VPN) connections, enterprise customers can use BroadbandAccess as an extension of their corporate local area network (LAN) or intranet, allowing them to work from any location within the BroadbandAccess coverage area, as if they were in the office downloading files and business-critical information residing behind corporate firewalls and for accessing e-mail, intranets and the Internet.

In addition to work applications, wireless consumers will be able to use BroadbandAccess handsets and laptops equipped with PC cards to enjoy many new fun and visual capabilities. They will be able to experience Get It Now® applications at broadband speed, including multi-player gaming, music and video content, video messaging and other multi-media applications. BroadbandAccess is available for $79.99 monthly access for unlimited use with a one-year customer agreement. Verizon Wireless is offering a promotional saving on its first BroadbandAccess device, the Verizon Wireless PC 5220 card, which also provides access to the company's NationalAccess data network. Through December 31, 2004, Verizon Wireless customers can buy the Verizon Wireless PC 5220 card for $99.99 with a two-year customer agreement or $149.99 with a one-year customer agreement after $150 rebate.

For more information on BroadbandAccess and Verizon Wireless data services, please visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers can contact a Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative directly at 1-800-VZW-4-BIZ.

(EDITORS: Broadcast-quality B-roll footage about BroadbandAccess is available online. Log on to www.thenewsmarket.com/verizonwireless to preview and request video segments, which can be received in newsrooms digitally, by tape or via satellite.)

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is the nation's leading provider of wireless communications. The company has the largest nationwide wireless voice and data network and 40.4 million customers. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) (LSE:VOD). Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To receive broadcast-quality video footage of Verizon Wireless operations, log onto www.thenewsmarket.com/verizonwireless.  

NOTE: This press release contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following important factors could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: materially adverse changes in economic conditions in the markets served by us, an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities or those of Verizon Communications by nationally accredited ratings organizations, the effects of the substantial competition that exists in our markets, which has been intensifying, and which may intensify further as a result of local number portability regulations that allow wireless customers to retain their phone numbers when switching wireless service providers, our ability to obtain sufficient financing to satisfy our substantial capital requirements, including to fund capital expenditures, debt repayment and distributions to our owners, our ability to obtain sufficient spectrum licenses, particularly in our most densely populated areas, our ability to develop future business opportunities, including wireless data services, and to continue to adapt to the changing conditions in the wireless industry, our ability to receive satisfactory service from our key vendors and suppliers, our ability to generate additional subscribers, with acceptable levels of churn, from resellers and distributors of our service, material changes in available technology, and technology substitution that could impact the popularity and usage of our technology, our continued provision of satisfactory service to our subscribers at an acceptable cost, in order to reduce churn, the impact of continued unionization efforts with respect to our employees, regulatory developments, including new regulations that could increase our cost of doing business or reduce demand for our services, developments in connection with existing or future litigation, and changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings.

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