Trinidad Aguirre Appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager for Verizon Telecom in Texas

IRVING, Texas - Verizon Communications has appointed Trinidad Aguirre as senior vice president and general manager for its domestic telecom business unit in Texas.

In the newly created position, Aguirre will have responsibility for all customer service, network operations, sales and local marketing for consumer and general-business customers in Texas.

Aguirre, who will be based in Irving, will head the company's operational efforts to aggressively compete against incumbent cable companies, satellite providers, voice-over- Internet operators and other providers of local phone service. In Texas, Verizon serves 1.2 million households with local telephone service.

Aguirre, who joined Verizon's predecessor company GTE Corp. in 1980 as a central office technician, will be responsible for ensuring Verizon customers in Texas receive reliable, high-quality service and are offered compelling packages of bundled services, long-distance and local phone service, productivity-enhancing calling features and broadband services. He will also work closely with the Communications Workers of America in maintaining a strong working relationship between the company and the union, which represents nearly 4,000 employees in Texas.

In addition, Aguirre will work closely with the Texas team to continue expanding Verizon's all-digital, fiber-optic network upgrade. It delivers crystal-clear voice service and the company's FiOS (FYE'-ose) services - much higher broadband Internet speeds and a full suite of video services -- to residence and small-business customers in roughly 25 North Texas cities that represent one-third of the company's Texas customers. Verizon is the first company to connect homes and businesses directly to fiber optics on a widespread scale.

Verizon continues to construct fiber-to-the-premises, or FTTP, networks in several North Texas cities where it offers landline communications services. The company began implementing its plan to upgrade its fiber-network in 2004 in North Texas, and has already established an aggressive sales and marketing campaign that continues to take dissatisfied customers away from competitors, including area cable companies, in record fashion.

"In today's dynamic and highly competitive communications marketplace, we need executives who are steeped in the business and can ensure our consumers are very well served. Trinidad is a tested leader who will do an excellent job for Verizon and our customers in Texas," said Bob Mudge, Verizon's executive vice president and chief operating officer of region operations.

For the past three years, Aguirre served as vice president-field operations for Verizon, overseeing network operations activity in 16 of the company's 28 states where it provides local telephone service. In that position, he led more than 3,800 employees in maintaining Verizon's network infrastructure, including the oversight of all provisioning, maintenance and network modernization of Verizon's switching and transport systems. During his 26-year telecommunications career, Aguirre has also worked in a variety of operations, network planning and customer service positions.

"I look forward to helping make Texas a beachhead of success for Verizon," said Aguirre. "I lead a very capable team of professionals who are deeply committed to making Verizon the undisputed leader in delivering best-in-class communication services to our customers."

Aguirre earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, and a master's degree in telecommunications from the University of Dallas in Irving.

Aguirre, a native of San Angelo, and his wife have four children and live in Trophy Club.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), a Dow 30 company, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 53 million customers nationwide. Verizon Business operates one of the most expansive wholly-owned global IP networks. Verizon Telecom is deploying the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network to deliver the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services to customers. Based in New York, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 250,000 and generates annual consolidated operating revenues of approximately $90 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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