Verizon Wireless Extends Wireless Broadband Network To Worcester, Massachusetts

WOBURN, MA — Continuing to build on its strategy to provide business and individual customers superior voice and data networks in the United States, Verizon Wireless today announced the expansion of wide-area wireless broadband services to Worcester through its BroadbandAccess and V CAST offerings. With the expansion, Verizon Wireless customers will be able to access the company's high-speed wireless broadband network while traveling throughout Worcester and the surrounding towns of Worcester County. Both services are based on the company's Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network technology.

Verizon Wireless was the first national wireless provider to commercially launch a high-speed wireless broadband network in the United States. BroadbandAccess, available to half the nation's population, delivers average connection speeds of 400 to 700 kilobits per second. The service features the ability to connect to the Internet using a PC card that slides directly into most laptop computers and enables a 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 services to our customers across the country and right here in Worcester," said Bob Stott, New England Region president for Verizon Wireless. "With BroadbandAccess, Worcester's mobile professionals and business customers will now be able to take their desktop experience wherever they go in the coverage area, allowing them to wirelessly access their Outlook calendars, the Internet, e-mail and critical business information residing behind corporate firewalls."

As an example of the productivity benefits the company's wireless broadband provides to mobile and business professionals, construction supervisors can capture important details about building projects and wirelessly transmit the information to the contractor; food and beverage company representatives can re-order stock wirelessly while at the point of sale; and physicians can write prescriptions, enter orders and manage other tasks via BroadbandAccess-powered PDAs or laptops.

The company's high-speed network also enables its V CAST multimedia service, which offers consumers the ability to download full song tracks right to Verizon Wireless phones or via PCs with XP operating software. The V CAST Music on demand service includes access to a catalog of more than 1.3 million songs and also offers video content on demand, including current news, weather, sports and entertainment programming. V CAST also allows customers to download and play cutting-edge 3D games for an additional charge. To access V CAST video content and games, customers need a V CAST-enabled phone and a $15.00 monthly subscription added to their Verizon Wireless calling plan.

For a limited time, Verizon Wireless customers with a new or existing voice plan can receive unlimited BroadbandAccess service for $59.99 monthly access for Internet browsing, email and intranet access. A new 2-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).

Verizon Wireless has invested $30 billion into its network in the last six years — $5 billion on average every year since 2000 when the company was formed — to ensure network reliability and increase coverage and capacity.

The company's BroadbandAccess coverage expansion in Massachusetts includes:

Worcester, Fitchburg (Rt. 190 from Oxford to Fitchburg), Leominster (Rt. 2 from Leominster to Harvard), Lancaster, Sterling, Clinton, Holden, Boylston, Paxton, Northborough (Rt. 290 from Northborough to Worcester), Southborough, Westborough (I-90 from Charlton to Westborough; Rt. 9 from Westborough to Worcester), Shrewsbury, Sutton, Oxford, Auburn, Millbury, Leicester, Spencer, North Oxford, and Charlton. The combined expansion also brings BroadbandAccess to Chelmsford, Dracut, Groton and Tyngsboro.

Additional towns in Massachusetts where BroadbandAccess has previously been deployed include: Boston (including Route 95, Route 93, 9 and the Massachusetts Turnpike) and towns within the Route 495 beltway; North of Boston (Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Merrimac and Salisbury); South of Boston (Braintree to Kingston on Route 3 and west of Kingston to Bridgewater, Raynham, Middleboro, New Bedford Westport, Fall River and Swansea as well as the Route 95 and Route 1 corridors to Providence through Cranston and Warwick, Rhode Island); and West of Boston (Westborough south along 495 to Wrentham). Verizon Wireless also maintains BroadbandAccess coverage at Logan International Airport.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless owns and operates the nation's most reliable wireless network, serving 54.8 million voice and data customers. The company has invested $30 billion in the last six years -- $5 billion on average every year since the company was formed -- to increase the coverage and capacity of its national network and to add new services. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., Verizon Wireless 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 receive 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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