Pulte Home Buyer: 'I'll Take the Smoky Granite Countertops and Verizon's Broadband Service, Please'

NEW YORK - A marketing agreement between Verizon and Pulte Homes will give Pulte home buyers access to Verizon's premium bundle of communications services, including broadband services over fiber-optic connections directly to the home.

The agreement to pre-install fiber to new homes reinforces Verizon's aggressive rollout of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology to provide broadband services directly to homes and businesses. Verizon announced its FTTP program May 19 in Keller, Texas, and recently expanded it to include FTTP deployments in Florida and California. Verizon also has announced its high-speed Internet access products - called Fios - which will be offered over FTTP technology.

Pulte homeowners will be advised by Pulte sales staff of the leading-edge technology available in their new community and will be able to order the most advanced services from Verizon. Pulte builds approximately 8,000 homes each year in Verizon service areas in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, Texas and California.

Pulte communities will receive priority consideration for fiber installation in new residential communities, allowing Pulte to promote Verizon's next-generation suite of voice, high-speed Internet and video services. Because Verizon remains committed to high-speed Internet access using DSL, that technology will still be available in many of Pulte's existing and new communities.

Three Pulte communities in California are scheduled to receive the new fiber technology: Sun City Shadow Hills, a 2,350-home active adult community in Indio; Solera by Del Webb, an active adult community, and The Estates at Apple Valley, both totaling 2,260 homes in Apple Valley; and Ridgemont Heights, a 235-home community in Adelanto. Homes connected with fiber will be provided with plenty of capacity for the homeowners' existing and future communications and entertainment needs.

"This agreement with Pulte positions Verizon services as the kind of versatile, high-value communications package customers have come to expect in the emerging era of broadband," said Marilyn O'Connell, senior vice president of broadband solutions and new products for Verizon.

"Within a few months, we intend to install fiber to homes in these four Pulte developments in California -- a sign of things to come as America embraces its broadband future and we make it possible," she said.

According to John Stoller, senior vice president for Pulte Homes, the alliance with Verizon and the commitment to offer the latest in technology and service reinforce the Pulte reputation for quality and value.

"We are pleased with Verizon's commitment to provide fiber and state-of-the art communications services to our home buyers," he said. "As high-speed Internet services continue to evolve and provide meaningful communications and entertainment offerings to our customers, having this leading edge technology available in our communities will be increasingly attractive to our home buyers."

Verizon is an industry leader in broadband technology. With 2.9 million high-speed DSL customers in 23 states and Washington, D.C., as well as an aggressive strategy to pass more than 1 million homes and businesses with FTTP capability by the end of the year. The company is the first to make the broad leap into FTTP deployment, both in new communities like the Pulte developments and in "overlay" installations such as those in Keller, Texas, where copper facilities already exist.

Verizon's plan is to make fiber available via an economic all-glass distribution system that makes the final fiber-optic connection simple to execute as soon as the customer orders the broadband services. All of Verizon's inter-office facilities already are carried on fiber optics, which allow great reliability, easy upgrade and enhancement and enormous efficiency.

Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises project will allow voice, data and video services to be delivered over the same connection. The high-speed Internet product offers data connection speeds starting at 5 megabits per second, greater than most home services offered by competitors today and comparable to the rates used by major business installations.

Pulte Homes

Pulte Homes, Inc., (www.pulte.com) based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., has operations in 45 markets across the U.S. Under its Del Webb (www.delwebb.com) brand, the company is the nation's leading builder of active adult communities for people age 55 and older. Over its history, the company has constructed more than 370,000 homes. In 2004, J.D. Power and Associates ranked Pulte Homes No. 1 in customer satisfaction in 14 U.S. markets, and among the top three homebuilders in 23 of 25 total markets surveyed. Pulte also received the first ever Platinum Award for Excellence in Customer Service from J.D. Power and Associates in 2004. Pulte Mortgage LLC is a nationwide lender committed to meeting the financing needs of Pulte Homes' customers by offering a wide variety of loan products and superior customer service.

Web site: http://www.pulte.com/

Verizon Communications

A Dow 30 company, Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services, with approximately $68 billion in annual revenues. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world, as measured by directory titles and circulation. Verizon's international presence includes wireline and wireless communications operations and investments, primarily in the Americas and Europe. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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Media contact:
Jim Smith, Verizon Retail Markets, 212-395-7746
Mark Marchand, Verizon Network Services, 518-396-1080
Mark Marymee, Pulte Homes, Inc. Director, Corporate Communication, 248-433-4648