Verizon Wireless Expands Wireless Broadband To Greater San Francisco Bay Area

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Verizon Wireless today announced it has expanded its wide-area wireless broadband network throughout the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, giving customers as far north as Healdsburg and as far south as Gilroy unprecedented access to the nation's largest high-speed wireless broadband network in the U.S. Verizon Wireless' EV-DO (evolution-data optimized) network provides customers with access to two award-winning services: BroadbandAccess, the largest wide-area wireless Internet access service available in the nation, and V CAST, the nation's first wireless broadband multimedia service for consumers.

"The expansion of our high-speed wireless broadband network throughout the Greater Bay Area gives mobile professionals and consumers access to critical business information, as well as news and entertainment, when and where they need it," said Rich Garwood, Northern California/Nevada regional president for Verizon Wireless. "Now it's possible for people to have continuous wireless broadband Internet access while they are working in the field, commuting in a van-pool, or entertaining the kids with V CAST during a road trip."

Verizon Wireless' high-speed wireless broadband network now covers more than 140 million Americans in 171 metropolitan markets* -- including nine San Francisco Bay Area counties -- and 68 primary airports** coast to coast. Verizon Wireless was first to deliver wide-area wireless broadband services to the San Francisco Bay Area, launching EV-DO at the three major Bay Area airports last summer, and in the core of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento by September. With today's launch, BroadbandAccess and V CAST are available throughout San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. The expansion also provides contiguous wireless broadband coverage along the heavily traveled Interstate 80 corridor, which connects the Bay Area and Sacramento. For a map of BroadbandAccess and V CAST coverage, please visit www.verizonwireless.com.

BroadbandAccess

The company's nationally recognized BroadbandAccess service, available to mobile professionals and enterprise customers, allows Bay Area customers to connect wirelessly to the Internet via their laptop at broadband speeds for a convenient way to conduct business. The nation's largest and fastest wide-area wireless broadband service, BroadbandAccess is faster than any competing wide-area wireless data service. With BroadbandAccess, customers can download a 1 Megabyte email attachment (for example, a small PowerPoint presentation or a large PDF file), or receive three digital pictures (each 400 x 600 pixels), in less than 20 seconds. Because EV-DO technology is backward compatible — a distinct advantage to using CDMA technology — customers who travel outside a BroadbandAccess coverage area with an EV-DO device will seamlessly switch to Verizon Wireless' existing NationalAccess service, which runs on the company's 1xRTT network.

"Mobile professionals can enjoy true mobility with the speed, security, simplicity and coverage of our BroadbandAccess service throughout the Greater Bay Area, as well as when they travel throughout the U.S.," said Garwood. "Verizon Wireless' EV-DO network is the nation's largest high-speed wireless broadband network, giving BroadbandAccess customers a superior, secure wireless data experience while away from the office."

Working with virtual private network (VPN) connections, business customers can use BroadbandAccess as an extension of their corporate local area network (LAN) or intranet, allowing them to work from any location within the BroadbandAccess coverage area, as if they were in the office. BroadbandAccess, with typical user download speeds of 400-700 kilobits per second (kbps), is ideal for downloading files and business-critical information residing behind corporate firewalls and for accessing e-mail, intranets and the Internet. BroadbandAccess' EV-DO technology has its own data protection and authentication and is designed to work with a business' existing IT infrastructure and security solutions.

In an effort to bring the speed and mobility of Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess to more of its customers, Verizon Wireless is offering a promotional cost-savings of 25 percent for its voice customers. Verizon Wireless customers with a new or existing voice plan can receive unlimited BroadbandAccess for $59.99 monthly access with a 2-year customer agreement. The promotional savings is valid through January 5, 2006. For non-voice customers, BroadbandAccess is available for $79.99 monthly access for unlimited use with a new one- or two-year customer agreement. For more information on BroadbandAccess from Verizon Wireless, visit www.verizonwireless.com/broadbandaccess.

V CAST

Verizon Wireless' V CAST service enables consumers to access short video content on-demand, including current news, weather, sports and entertainment programming. With V CAST, customers can also download and play cutting-edge 3D games, watch music videos and concert performances from favorite artists, view mobisodes (short programs specifically designed for mobile phones), and other video content right on their V CAST phones. For a list of all videos and 3D game entertainment available on V CAST, visit www.getvcast.com.

For $15.00 monthly access added to their Verizon Wireless calling plan, customers can get the V CAST VPak which includes unlimited access to a wide array of more than 300 daily updated video clips from leading news, sports, weather and entertainment content providers. (Unlimited basic short content is included, but application download fees apply for 3D games, premium video short content, and all other Get It Now® applications.) There are no airtime charges to download, stream or watch V CAST content. Customers can also download, stream or watch premium short video content, available at additional cost, which includes video such as music videos, select sports clips and mobisodes.

EV-DO Network

BroadbandAccess and V CAST run on Verizon Wireless' EV-DO network, which began commercial operation in October 2003 in San Diego and Washington, D.C and is now the largest high-speed wireless broadband network in the country. Verizon Wireless' EV-DO network initially made its commercial debut with BroadbandAccess wireless Internet access service for business customers and mobile professionals. The company launched its V CAST wireless broadband multimedia service in February 2005.

Verizon Wireless has invested more than $4 billion annually on the build-out and enhancement of its network since the company's inception in 2000, and last year alone it invested $5 billion, including the build-out of its EV-DO network. In California alone, Verizon Wireless invested nearly $600 million in network enhancements in 2004.

For more information on V CAST or BroadbandAccess from Verizon Wireless, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN, or go to www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers can contact a Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative directly at 1-800-VZW-4-BIZ.

*Major metropolitan areas covered: Cities of more than 100,000 people, with more than 50% of that population covered by EV-DO network.

**According to the Federal Aviation Administration: "Primary Airports are Commercial Service Airports that have more than 10,000 passenger boardings each year."

(EDITORS: Broadcast-quality B-roll footage featuring V CAST and BroadbandAccess is available online. Log on to www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia to preview and request video segments, which can be received in newsrooms digitally, by tape or via satellite.)

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless owns and operates the nation's most reliable wireless network, serving 47.4 million voice and data 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. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

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