Calling All Lord Of The Rings Fans: Get Ready For The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers With Verizon Wireless Text Messaging

BEDMINSTER, NJ — Much of the excitement surrounding the December 18, 2002 release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," the second movie in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is speculation as to how the book translates on the big screen. What will the Ents look like? Will the movie introduce a love triangle challenging Aragorn and Arwen's relationship? When will we see Gandalf again?

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless provider and a leader in mobile data, lets customers follow this exciting journey from the Plains of Rohan to Helm's Deep with their wireless phones. With Verizon Wireless Mobile Messenger^SM, devotees can quickly and discreetly share thoughts and ideas about the movie with this special Lord of the Rings dictionary of terms. Whether making plans to meet up at the movie theater or trading thoughts about how the book will translate to the big screen, fans can stay connected by text messaging with terms from the Verizon Wireless LOTR Text Messaging Dictionary:

The Ring --- O
Gandalf the White --- GNDLF WHT
Frodo Lives! --- FRDO LV!
Gollum --- GOLM
Middle-earth --- -ERH-
Wormtongue --- :L
Helm's Deep --- HDP
Aragorn and Arwen --- AnA
My Precious --- MPRS
One Ring to Rule Them All --- 1O2RULALL

Verizon Wireless customers with two-way text-messaging capable phones can also participate in two Lord of the Rings text messaging contests. The Quest for Knowledge is a trivia game that tests fans' knowledge of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie, while The Two Towers Hidden Message game sends scrambled messages to the player's phone each day. Both contests run through January 31, 2003 and all participants are automatically entered to win Lord of the Rings prize packages and the latest Verizon Wireless phones. No purchase is necessary. For additional details, visit www.verizonwireless.com/lotr.

Lord of the Rings devotees can pay as they go for $0.02 for each message received and $0.10 for each message sent, or select from bundled plans for $2.99 per month for 100 messages, $3.99 per month for 200 messages and $7.99 per month for 600 messages sent or received. Verizon Wireless Prepay service customers can also join the Lord of the Rings excitement - prepay customers with text messaging-capable phones can send and receive messages for just $0.05 each.

The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and the names of the characters, events, items and places therein, are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the nation's leading provider of wireless communications. The company has the largest nationwide wireless voice and data network and 31.5 million customers. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com.

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