Temporary Listings in Verizon's Directory Assistance Computers Can Help Displaced New Yorkers Connect

NEW YORK - Verizon is offering customers in lower Manhattan who are without phone service a temporary replacement listing at no charge in Verizon's 411 Directory Assistance database so that operators can direct callers to wireless phones, voice mailboxes, temporary business sites or temporary residences.

With the replacement listings, clients and customers can reach businesses and family and friends can reach individuals.

Verizon also is advising customers receiving the company's paper directories this fall that directories will carry World Trade Center listings that existed before the tragedy.

"Our mission is to help people connect. Giving New Yorkers this temporary listing option will let people anywhere find them at an alternate number," said Kitty Linder, president of Verizon's operator services group. "We handle more than four million directory assistance calls nationwide every day, so this listing option should help fulfill our mission."

Customers who call the local business office number on their phone bill or the emergency business and residential repair and ordering number, 1-800-795-8742, can register an alternate listing that will be left in the database until repairs of Verizon's network are complete and the customers' service is reactivated. Customers would then either list their pre-crisis number or a new number. As always, additional permanent listings are available at an additional cost.

Many customers are expected to register their wireless phone numbers or regular phone lines equipped with voice mailboxes and other call handling features like Caller ID and Call Forwarding.

"Verizon's services like Home Voice Mail, Call Waiting and Three-Way Calling are great features that can be a big help in this crisis if they're activated on the alternate line and if callers know to call that line," Linder said. "The alternate listings provide the stepping stone callers need to make that connection and they are available by dialing 411."

Printed Directories Will Carry Lost Listings

As America begins to adjust to life since the terrorist events, Verizon is advising users of its White and Yellow Pages directories that some Manhattan phone listings for businesses in and around the World Trade Center that are no longer active will still appear in the books that will be published this fall. The company is including a letter with the directories noting that many of the listings may have new numbers or may have relocated or closed.

Verizon Information Services publishes the phone books as well as the SuperPages.com electronic directory.

Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) 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 125 million access line equivalents and approximately 28 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. A Fortune 10 company with about 260,000 employees and more than $65 billion in annual 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.