Governor King Helps Celebrate Expansion of Verizon Call Centers in Portland

PORTLAND, Maine - Verizon today celebrated the opening of its expanded general business sales call centers in Maine that serve customers in five Northeastern states. The recently completed expansion has created 179 additional jobs at Verizon's customer service complex located on Davis Farm Road in Portland.

The expanded call centers now employ 268 service representatives, support staff, and management personnel who handle billing and service requests for Verizon's general business and ISDN (integrated services digital network) customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

"Today's celebration provides an opportunity to highlight the significant impact Verizon has had on creating scores of New Economy jobs in Maine," said Gov. Angus King, who participated in the opening of the Portland general business sales call centers. "In addition to the newly created positions the company has added here at its own call center facility, Verizon has built a state-of-the-art telecommunications network in Maine which is directly responsible for attracting more than 22,000 new telecommunications-supported jobs to the state."

Ed Dinan, president of Verizon Maine, said, "Verizon has added customer service positions in Portland for the same reasons other companies have chosen to expand in Maine - it has an available, educated and committed workforce. Maine employees have consistently proven to be among the most productive, dedicated and innovative workers in the United States."

The added positions in the Portland general business sales call centers account for nearly 10 percent of Verizon's workforce in Maine of more than 1,800 employees.

The expanded call centers are all located at 5 Davis Farm Road in Portland and consist of three separate customer service units, namely the General Business Service Center, the WinBack Center, and the ISDN Center.

The General Business Service Center is the largest of these units and employs service representatives who handle billing and service requests for general business customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The WinBack Center handles service requests from customers who are coming back to Verizon after trying out local phone service offered by other local phone providers throughout the Northeast.

The ISDN Center handles billing and service requests for Verizon's ISDN service in the Northeast.

"We are extremely pleased with our decision to expand operations in Maine," said Debra M. Scifo, regional sales vice president, Verizon Business Sales Center - East. "Our Portland business call centers are handling almost 100,000 calls a month and productivity results to date are already well ahead of our year-end objectives."

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with more than 100 million access lines and more than 25 million wireless customers. A Fortune 10 company with more than 260,000 employees and approximately $60 billion in 1999 revenues, Verizon's global presence extends to 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.