Verizon Expands Local Calling in 19 Exchanges On Virginia's Middle Peninsula, Northern Neck

RICHMOND, Va. -- Some 75,700 telephone customers on Virginia's Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck will be able to

take advantage of expanded local calling areas next year.

Some calls that are now long distance will become local calls. Customers who make calls to friends and family in the

expanded calling area will no longer pay per-minute rates for those calls.

At the same time, rates for basic local service will rise for some customers to reflect the expanded local calling area,

but many customers will still realize an overall savings on their phone bills.

"We promised that the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE would bring real and lasting benefits to Virginians,"

said Robert Woltz, president of Verizon Virginia. "Our customers in communities all across the state are now

enjoying those benefits."

Bell Atlantic and GTE, which merged last year to become Verizon, agreed to expand local calling areas between contiguous

exchanges after the completion of the merger.

That practice, which Bell Atlantic launched in 1994, eventually will benefit over one million Verizon customers

statewide.

The expansion of local calling, scheduled for next April, will affect customers in the following exchanges who currently

pay per-minute charges for calls along 64 routes. They include:

Callao -- Local calling area to be expanded to include Farnham, Hague and Warsaw.

Colonial Beach -- Expanded to include Tappahannock.

Deltaville -- Expanded to include Gloucester, Hayes, Kilmarnock and Mathews.

Farnham -- Expanded to include Callao, Heathsville, Lively, Saluda and Tappahannock.

Gloucester -- Expanded to include Deltaville and Saluda.

Hague -- Expanded to include Callao and Warsaw.

Hayes -- Expanded to include Deltaville and Saluda.

Heathsville -- Expanded to include Farnham, Kilmarnock and Lively.

Irvington -- Expanded to include Saluda.

Kilmarnock -- Expanded to include Deltaville, Heathsville and Saluda.

King William -- Expanded to include Bowling Green, Dawn, King & Queen, Old Church, Tappahannock and West

Point.

King & Queen -- Expanded to include King William, Saluda and Tappahannock.

Lively -- Expanded to include Farnham, Heathsville, Saluda and Tappahannock.

Mathews -- Expanded to include Deltaville.

Montross -- Expanded to include Tappahannock and Warsaw.

Reedville -- Expanded to include Lively.

Saluda -- Expanded to include Farnham, Gloucester, Hayes, Irvington, Kilmarnock, King & Queen, Lively and

Tappahannock.

Tappahannock -- Expanded to include Bowling Green, Colonial Beach, Farnham, King William, King & Queen,

Lively, Montross, Port Royal, Saluda and Warsaw.

Warsaw -- Expanded to include Callao, Hague, Montross and Tappahannock.

As local calling areas widen, monthly rates often rise as the affected exchange moves into a higher rate group. Monthly

rates in larger local calling areas are usually higher than in smaller calling areas, because more people can be reached

with a local call. Verizon is providing detailed information about any increase in rates to those customers affected in

letters going out this week.

Customers who want to comment on the local calling area expansion should write the Clerk of the State Commission, State

Corporation Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Va. 23218-2118.

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 125 million access line

equivalents and approximately million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world.

A Fortune 10 company with about 260,000 employees and approximately $65 billion in annual revenues, Verizon's global

presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on

Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

####