Video Franchise Approvals Move Verizon Customers in Three Pennsylvania Communities Closer to TV Choice, Competition

PITTSBURGH - Residents of Bethel Park, Mt. Lebanon and Peters Township are a major step closer to having a real alternative for their cable television services, thanks to votes Monday night (Aug. 13) by municipal officials authorizing Verizon to offer its FiOS TV service in their communities.

The franchise agreements cover more than 34,000 households in these South Hills communities.

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.

"Consumers in southwestern Pennsylvania have been clamoring for choice and competition for their TV service," said William B. Petersen, president of Verizon Pennsylvania.  "FiOS TV is the answer, offering an innovative and reliable alternative to the incumbent cable provider."

The approved agreements are the first ones in southwestern Pennsylvania, and the company expects to finalize agreements with dozens of other area municipalities in the coming months.  In southeastern Pennsylvania to date, 140 municipalities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties have awarded Verizon franchises covering more than 621,000 households.

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 business in more than 90 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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