Verizon Wireless Expands High-Speed Wireless Network In Central New York

SYRACUSE, NY — Verizon Wireless announced today it has expanded its local wireless broadband coverage area northwest of Syracuse to Oswego and east along the Thruway toward the Utica-Rome area, giving more local residents access to advanced wireless data and entertainment services. The company also added two new cell sites in Syracuse and Clay, enhancing its local network coverage and capacity.

• Evolution-Data Optimized (or EV-DO) technology, the technology that enables the company's BroadbandAccess and V CAST services, has been added to 18 area cell sites, expanding the local wireless broadband coverage area to Baldwinsville, Canastota, Chittenango, Fayetteville, Fulton, Granby Center, Lysander, Manlius, Minoa, Oswego and Scriba Center. Wireless broadband was launched in the Greater Syracuse and Rochester areas in August 2005. It launched in Buffalo and Albany this summer.
• A new Syracuse cell site increases coverage and capacity on West Onondaga Boulevard and Grand Avenue between Geddes Street and Route 173, as well as the southern end of Burnet Park, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and the Western Light Shopping Plaza.
• The new Clay site increases coverage and capacity along Route 31 between Great Northern Mall and Route 11.

This network expansion is part of the company's aggressive multi-billion dollar network investment each year (more than $1 billion every 90 days), including nearly $130 million in Upstate New York in 2006, to stay ahead of the growing demand for Verizon Wireless voice and data services. Verizon Wireless has invested $35 billion — on average $5 billion a year — into its national wireless network over the past seven years as part of its commitment to offer customers the most reliable service available, including wireless data services such as Picture Messaging, TXT Messaging, and the company's exclusive V CAST service. V CAST brings video clips of TV shows, music on demand and other multimedia services to wireless phones over Verizon Wireless' high-speed EV-DO network. BroadbandAccess offers customers the nation's most reliable high-speed wireless broadband network, operating at average speeds between 400 - 700 kbps and enabling the download of a 1 Megabyte e-mail attachment (the equivalent of a small PowerPoint^® presentation or a large PDF file) in about 20 seconds.

"This expansion is part of our continuing focus on investing in our network reliability and providing innovative high-speed data service to our customers nationwide and here in the Syracuse area," said Ken Dixon, president of Verizon Wireless' Upstate New York Region. "With BroadbandAccess, mobile professionals and students can take their desktop experience wherever they go in the coverage area, allowing them to wirelessly access their Outlook^® calendars, the Internet, e-mail, and other critical information."

For a limited time, Verizon Wireless customers with a new or existing voice plan can receive unlimited BroadbandAccess service for Internet browsing, e-mail and intranet access for $59.99 monthly 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).

To access V CAST video content and games, customers need a V CAST-enabled phone and either a $15.00 monthly subscription, or a $3.00 daily subscription, added to their Verizon Wireless calling plan. The V CAST Music on-demand service includes access to a catalog of more than 1.5 million songs.

The company's "nation's most reliable wireless network" reputation is based on network studies performed by real-life test men and test women throughout the country who inspired the "Can you hear me now? Good.^®" national advertising campaign. These engineers drive 95 specially equipped vehicles some 220,000 miles quarterly on Interstate, US and state highways, as well as major roads and surface streets. Test vehicles are equipped with computers that automatically make more than 750,000 voice call attempts and more than 4 million data tests quarterly on the Verizon Wireless network and the networks of other carriers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you are interested in setting up an interview or ride-along test drive with your local Verizon Wireless test man or woman, please contact John O'Malley at 585-321-7264.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 57 million customers. The largest US wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 60,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

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