Verizon's Entertainment Partner Clobbers Cable in Northeast Customer Study

NEW YORK - DIRECTV, Verizon's marketing partner in reaching hundreds of thousands of homes nationwide with all-digital entertainment services, is the top performer in customer satisfaction among satellite and cable-TV subscribers in the13-state Eastern Region J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Residential Cable/Satellite TV Customer Satisfaction Study.

"It's great to be aligned with top-performing services like DIRECTV," said Mary Yarbrough, vice president of alternate channel development for Verizon. "We hear from our customers every day about how good the DIRECTV services are, and last quarter some 60,000 customers joined more than 400,000 others who signed up with Verizon to get DIRECTV. That's proof that J.D. Power got it right."

DIRECTV has received the highest ranking in three previous J.D. Power national customer satisfaction studies, and earlier this year DIRECTV received the highest score for customer satisfaction among satellite and cable-TV companies rated by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Verizon customers can add DIRECTV to their service bundle of calling and broadband Internet services and receive bundle discounts of $2 to $6 a month. In New York, for example, a calling, Internet and DIRECTV bundle starts at about $95 a month -- a regular, not a promotional, price.

For this year's study, J.D. Power and Associates recognized the highest-ranked companies in each of four regions in the United States - East, South, North/Central and West. The East region is comprised of 13 states, including the six New England states and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia.

"Our highest ranking by J.D. Power and Associates represents another mark of excellence in customer satisfaction for DIRECTV this year," said John Suranyi, DIRECTV's president of sales and customer service. "And while it's an honor to be recognized by J.D. Power and Associates and ACSI, we are not resting on our laurels. We will continue to look at how we can improve all aspects of our business - from technology to content to customer service - and provide an even better experience for our customers."

In addition to rolling out ground-breaking interactive sports programming, new original programming like CD USA, and expanding its local HD programming to 36 markets, DIRECTV is continuing to reinforce its commitment to providing world-class service for its customers.

This year's J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 15,819 satellite TV and cable households nationwide.

J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), a Dow 30 company, 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 55 million customers nationwide. Verizon Business operates one of the most expansive wholly-owned global IP networks. Verizon Telecom is deploying the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network to deliver the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services to customers. Based in New York, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 252,000 and generates annual consolidated operating revenues of approximately $90 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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