Mother's Day Expected to Continue Reign as Busiest Sunday of the Year on Verizon Network

NEW YORK - The telecommunications industry and the technology used to transmit calls have changed dramatically, but one thing has remained unchanged for a century: sons and daughters will call Mom on Mother's Day, making it the busiest Sunday of the year on the Verizon network.

Last year, the company's network handled nearly 1 billion local and long-distance calls on Mother's Day - about 12 percent more than an average Sunday. The normal Sunday volume on the Verizon network is 872 million calls, while average weekday volume is about 1.5 billion calls.

"As we go about the business of making sure our network serves customers round the clock with a reliability factor of 99.99 percent, it's nice to stop for one minute and think that what we're doing is making sure these very important calls go through on Mother's Day," said John Bell, Verizon senior vice president of Network Operations. "We're proud that our employees as well as our local and long-distance network are helping sons and daughters stay connected with their mothers."

Bell added that even with the surge in calls on Mother's Day, the Verizon network is engineered and built to handle the added volume, and is supported with backup electrical power in the event a storm or other problem interrupts commercial power at Verizon's central switching offices.

"Since the number of calls we're expecting to handle this Sunday still doesn't approach normal weekday call volumes, a son or daughter who says they tried to call and couldn't get through because of network congestion doesn't have an excuse," Bell added. "Whether it's a local call or a Verizon long-distance call on Sunday, we have the capacity to handle it."

Sons or daughters looking for last-minute shopping ideas and local gift delivery can call a helpful Verizon LiveSource operator on 411 and find a specific florist, candy store or other shop in the same area where their mother lives. In addition, sons and daughters can also visit Verizon SuperPages.com at www.superpages.com to search for local stores and gift ideas.

Verizon Communications

A Fortune 10 company, 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 136.6 million access line equivalents and 33.3 million Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon is the third-largest long-distance carrier for U.S. consumers, with 13.2 million long-distance lines, and the company is also the largest directory publisher in the world, as measured by directory titles and circulation. With approximately $67 billion in annual revenues and 227,000 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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