Verizon Wireless Donates More Than 2,500 Cellular Phones to Fight Domestic Violence

KNOXVILLE, TN — Verizon Wireless announced today the donation of 515 cellular phones to the Community Coalition on Family Violence as part of a region-wide effort to fight domestic violence.

Since last October, Verizon Wireless has collected more than 2,500 phones from local businesses and Verizon Wireless customers in East Tennessee. Of these phones, Verizon Wireless technicians have prepared many of them for distribution to domestic violence victims to provide them with free wireless access to local law enforcement agencies, domestic violence shelters and support agencies such as the YWCA.

"The Knoxville community has been more than generous in participating in this program," said Verizon Wireless East Tennessee retail general manager Ryan Chandler. "Our goal was to collect 2,500 phones by the end of 2001, and we will successfully exceed that goal before the end of the year. With the help of hundreds of Knoxvillians, we have made significant strides in the fight against domestic violence."

As part of a company-wide commitment to fight domestic violence, Verizon Wireless has established a relationship with the Community Coalition on Family Violence in Knox County for the phone donation program. All phones collected are inspected and reprogrammed by Verizon Wireless technicians and then donated to the Community Coalition for distribution throughout Knox, Blount, Roan and Anderson counties to anyone who may be in danger of violent domestic abuse.

"Our relationship with Verizon Wireless has allowed us to help more victims of family violence than we could even dream of assisting on our own," said Community Coalition on Family Violence director Charity Smith. "These phones are touching hundreds of lives throughout our region."

Verizon Wireless accepts donations of unused cell phones from businesses, groups or individuals throughout the Knoxville area. Anyone interested in donating a phone can take their used phones to the Verizon Wireless location at 6513 Kingston Pike in Knoxville.

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), including Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless and PrimeCo Personal Communications. 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.

####