Verizon Residential Wireline Customers Who Register to Receive and Pay Bills Online Can Save Time, the Environment and Win Prizes

As part of a comprehensive company effort to reduce the environmental impact of business operations, Verizon hopes to motivate several hundred thousand additional residential wireline customers to start receiving and paying their monthly bills online.  Currently, nearly 2.5 million Verizon wireline customers receive and pay their monthly bills online.

Consumers who make the switch to receive and pay their bills online by Oct. 31 will be automatically entered to win a fuel-efficient 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid - the grand prize of a new sweepstakes.

In 2008, 97 million paper Verizon bills were replaced by online bills, saving 4.3 million pounds of paper.  By opting to receive their monthly bills electronically, Verizon wireline, wireless and business customers helped save the equivalent of 52,000 trees last year - twice as many trees as there are in New York's Central Park.

"Paperless billing is an incredibly easy way to reduce one's carbon footprint, but it's also a faster, more secure and convenient and clutter-free way to pay your bills," said Joan Simpson, vice president of green and sustainability strategies for Verizon. "With our customers' help, we can make a piece of paper disappear instead of a tree."

Switching to Paper-free Billing Made Simple

Starting Monday (Aug. 3), customers can enter Verizon's Get Your Green On Paperless Billing Sweepstakes & Instant Win Game by either visiting www.verizon.com/gogreen or by logging in to their Verizon account at www.myverizon.com and enroll in paper-free billing and online bill-pay service. 

In addition to the grand prize, thousands of other registrants will win daily instant prizes including $100 Visa® virtual accounts and Get Your Green On reusable tote bags.

More than 200 Prius sedans, featuring engines that run on gasoline and electricity, are currently used by Verizon employees in communities across the country.  Compared with many automobiles equipped with traditional gasoline-powered engines, the hybrid vehicle can travel nearly double the miles per gallon and emits less than half of the carbon.

By going paper-free, customers still can obtain instant online account status and receive reminder payment notices about their amount owed and due date; download and print their bill; and track the last 12 months of their bills for record-keeping purposes.

Last year, 16 million payments (310,000 per week) were made online at verizon.com.

When paying via Verizon's auto pay service, all transactions are processed on a secure server.

Paper-free billing, said Simpson, will also lead to the use of fewer stamps, fewer trips to the mailbox or post office, fewer checks to write and less mail for customers to open.

Verizon has long been committed to reducing the environmental impact of its operations and helping its customers do the same.  Since 2001, Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program has collected more than 5.6 million no-longer-used wireless phones and kept more than 200 tons of batteries and electronic waste out of landfills. 

Last year, Verizon became the first telecommunications company to establish its own energy efficiency standards for telecom equipment, requiring vendors to manufacture equipment that is 20 percent more efficient.

Additionally, Verizon operates the largest fuel cell facility of its kind in the nation and is using and trialing other alternative energy sources including solar, geothermal and micro-turbines.  The company has also established more than 30 Energy Star certified retail stores and encourages employees to use telecommuting and teleconferencing as a way of reducing travel to help cut CO2 emissions.

For more information about Verizon's environmental initiatives, visit  http://newscenter2.verizon.com/kit/green-press-kit/.  

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 87 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations provide converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  Wireline also includes Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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