Verizon Expands Switching Center To Better Serve Bear Area Customers

BEAR, Del. -- Verizon Communications plans to invest more than $1.6 million to expand and modernize its Wrangle Hill telephone office serving customers in southern New Castle County. The building houses a digital switch, a state-of-the-art computer that routes calls to their destinations, and other advanced telecommunications equipment.

Verizon will increase the size of its Wrangle Hill switching office by about 60 percent to accommodate new switching equipment and additional telephone lines and provide additional facilities for competitors that may want to connect their equipment to Verizon's network. Construction is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2002. The company currently serves more than 27,000 telephone lines from the Wrangle Hill switching center.

"Because of Verizon's investment in Delaware, an advanced broadband, fiber-optic network now serves every corner of the state from Rockland to Rehoboth," said Joshua W. Martin III, president of Verizon Delaware. "The ability to build, enhance and maintain complex networks is at the very heart of our business. We have played a key role in Delaware's economic development for more than a century, and we intend be a part of Delaware's telecommunications future in the 21^st century and beyond."

Martin said Verizon's commitment to improve Delaware's telecommunications infrastructure includes:

• Investment of more than $500 million in the company's Delaware network since 1995.

• Fiber deployment in the state, which increased by 19 percent from 97,000 fiber miles at the end of 2000 to 115,713 fiber miles at the end of September 2001.

• Deployment of 75 SONET (synchronous optical network) rings in its Delaware network in 2001, bringing the total to 350. SONET rings provide multiple routes for high-speed voice and data services and are self-healing, automatically rerouting telecommunications transmissions in the event of a service disruption.

• Availability of Verizon Online DSL (digital subscriber line) service, which was launched in Delaware in January 2000. DSL is a high-speed connection to the Internet that enables users to surf the World Wide Web at speeds much faster than today's fastest analog modems. Today, more than 70,000 Delaware households can get Verizon Online DSL.

"Verizon is the only telecommunications company committed to significant investment in Delaware's future." Martin said. "Delaware's network is open to residents and businesses as well as our competitors. We welcome competition in the local marketplace, and any company that sincerely wants to compete here can do so."

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 128.5 million access line equivalents and 28.7 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. A Fortune 10 company with 256,000 employees and approximately $65 billion in annual revenues, Verizon's global presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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