Verizon Video Franchise Approvals Move Residents of Nine More North Hills, Pa., Communities Closer to TV Choice, Competition

PITTSBURGH - Residents in Indiana Township, O'Hara, McCandless, Millvale, Reserve, Ross, Shaler, Sharpsburg and West View are a major step closer to having a real alternative for their television services, thanks to recent votes by municipal officials authorizing Verizon to offer its FiOS TV service in their communities.

The franchise agreements cover more than 52,800 households in these communities, which are part of the North Hills Council of Governments (COG), a coalition representing municipalities in northern Allegheny and southern Butler counties.  With recent franchise approvals in Etna, Fox Chapel, Ohio Township and West Deer, Verizon now has secured franchise agreements covering nearly 70,000 households in the North Hills.

"With each cable franchise approval Verizon gets, a steadily growing number of consumers in southwestern Pennsylvania are getting closer to much-desired choice and competition for their TV service," said William B. Petersen, president of Verizon Pennsylvania.  "FiOS TV offers an innovative and reliable alternative to the incumbent cable provider that is long overdue."

Verizon delivers FiOS TV over the most advanced all-digital, fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes and plans to begin offering the service later this year in area communities where it has obtained franchises from local authorities.

The company expects to finalize agreements with dozens of other area municipalities in the coming months, including two more municipalities represented by the North Hills COG.  In southeastern Pennsylvania to date, more than 140 municipalities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties have awarded Verizon franchises covering nearly 630,000 households, and Verizon currently is offering FiOS TV to more than 270,000 households there.

FiOS TV offers a broad collection of all-digital programming, dozens of high-definition channels, access to over 8,600 video-on-demand titles and more.  It is delivered over Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises network, which has industry-leading quality and reliability.  Fiber delivers amazingly sharp pictures and sound, and has the capacity to transmit a wide array of high-definition programming that is so life-like and intense that it seems to leap from the screen.

In addition to FiOS TV, Verizon's all-fiber network allows the company to offer consumers and businesses high-speed FiOS Internet service at download speeds of up to 30 Mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds up to 5 Mbps.*  FiOS Internet service currently is available to many consumers and small businesses in more than 100 southwestern Pennsylvania communities.

* NOTE: actual (throughput) speeds will vary.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, 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 more than 62 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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