Verizon Creates 'Virtual Living Room' Packed With Prizes to Showcase Exclusive Entertainment Content for Consumers

NEW YORK - Call it interactive sweepstakes season at Verizon as the company opens the Verizon Lounge Tuesday (March 4), sporting a $25,000 electronic entertainment makeover grand prize.  The entertainment makeover, awaiting one lucky sweepstakes player, includes a flat screen TV and surround sound system, notebook and desktop computers - and much more.

Daily prizes and one major weekly prize, including this week's Sharp Aquos 52-inch LCD TV, will be awarded in the weeks ahead to site visitors when they play in the Verizon Lounge between now and May 31.  

The company established the Verizon Lounge as a cool, interactive place for people to get their game on every day during March, April and May.  Visitors can see more of the exclusive content that Verizon has created with partners like HBO, MTV and Showtime.  Consumers are encouraged to go to the lounge to play once a day to win, according to Verizon's director of online marketing Chris Anderson.   In addition, the Verizon Lounge serves as an enjoyable place to learn about the company's broadband and entertainment choices that can be ordered online at Verizon.com.

"Verizon is focused on being America's premier broadband and entertainment company," said Anderson. "People are looking for the fastest Internet speeds, incredible TV picture quality and more access to exclusive entertainment features - and Verizon offers them all."

The Verizon Lounge, designed to appear like a virtual living room, features sneak peeks of new episodes from hit TV series and upcoming movies, as well as allowing visitors to play daily sweepstakes involving pop-culture trivia. A grand-prize winner will be selected at random for the $25,000 home entertainment makeover after the sweepstakes concludes May 31.

Once inside the Verizon Lounge, visitors will see a couple sitting on a sofa, and their two children nearby, surfing the Internet. Guests can explore the site and learn more about Verizon's services, or immediately go to the sweepstakes by entering their e-mail address on the virtual TV screen. Then, guests can click on one of the three bars to see what icon pops up - match three and win instantly.  Before an icon -- a film reel, a movie camera, or a director's slate - is revealed, guests will have the chance to watch some exciting movie trailers or episodes from TV series.

Verizon currently offers a full-range of broadband and entertainment services for consumers and small businesses, including High Speed Internet service that uses digital subscriber line technology to deliver up to 7 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed, plus the company's industry-leading high-speed FiOS Internet service, the fastest in the marketplace, with download speeds up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds up to 20 Mbps available in select areas.* 

For video fans, Verizon offers its FiOS TV Premier package, which delivers 200 all-digital channels, more than 30 high-definition (HD) channels in most markets (growing to 150 by year's end) and access to more than 10,000 on-demand titles, 60 percent of which are free.

* 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 nearly 66 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 employs a diverse workforce of nearly 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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