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Verizon Wireless Completes $300 Million in DC, Maryland & Virginia Network Enhancements in 2007

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 February 2008, 12:00 CST

LAUREL, Md., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless today announced completion of a $300 million investment in its wireless voice and data network in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia region in 2007, bringing the company's regional network investment to more than $1.8 billion since 2000.

In 2007 alone, Verizon Wireless invested $6.5 billion nationwide to expand and advance its network coast-to-coast. The company has invested nearly $44 billion since it was formed -- $5.5 billion on average every year -- to increase the coverage and capacity of its national network and to add new services.

Last year, Verizon Wireless launched its high-speed data network in Roanoke and Southwest Virginia, Fredericksburg and Winchester using Evolution- Data Optimized (Ev-DO) Revision-A technology to power its BroadbandAccess Internet and V CAST multimedia applications.

The company continued investing in backup power and other redundant systems to keep the network operating during commercial power outages, and in its rigorous network testing program to monitor reliability and assist the company in making further improvements.

"Reliable wireless networks are not built overnight," said Tami Erwin, Verizon Wireless' regional president. "That's why we never stop building and improving our network with major annual investments to give our customers the very best in voice and high-speed data service."

BroadbandAccess

The company's flagship data service, BroadbandAccess, provides average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits per second and average upload speeds of 500-800 kbps.

That means customers can download a 1 Megabyte e-mail attachment -- the equivalent of a small PowerPoint(R) presentation or a large PDF file -- in about eight seconds and upload the same-sized file in less than 13 seconds. Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess service allows customers to download files approximately 10 times faster than customers of other wireless service providers that use different broadly deployed network technologies.

V CAST: Video and Music

The company's high-speed network also enables its V CAST multimedia services, offering customers the ability to download full song tracks, play cutting-edge 3D games and stream video clips straight to their phones. With content updated daily, customers can watch dozens of on-demand videos, including breaking news, weather, sports highlights, and the hottest entertainment clips.

With V CAST Music, Verizon Wireless has built a massive full-song mobile music store that contains more than 2.1 million songs from well-known and independent artists that customers can download over-the-air, right onto their V CAST Music-enabled phones.

The company also continued investing in its industry-leading network quality assurance program. Locally, the company's four real-life test men and women for the region drove specially equipped "baseline testing" vehicles thousands of miles across the region on Interstate, U.S. and state highways as well as major roads in high-population areas to determine if voice calls and data connections were successful on the first attempt and stayed connected.

Verizon Wireless test engineers nationwide are dedicated full-time to driving and testing the company's and its competitors' networks to measure performance and reliability. Nationally, these test men and women drive nearly 100 specially equipped vehicles almost one million miles annually. Vehicles are equipped with computer-controlled cell phones that automatically make more than three million voice call attempts and more than 16 million data tests annually on Verizon Wireless' network and the networks of other carriers.

Nationally the company invests more than $1 billion every 60 days to stay ahead of the growing demand for Verizon Wireless voice and data services, including picture messaging, text messaging, BroadbandAccess high-speed internet and the company's exclusive V CAST service.

Strong demand for Verizon Wireless services continued during the fourth quarter of 2007 as the company added 2.0 million net new customers and also reported the lowest customer turnover (highest customer loyalty) rate in the wireless industry.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 65.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 69,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: http://www.verizonwireless.com/. To preview and request broadcast- quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at http://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Verizon Wireless

CONTACT: Sherri Cunningham, +1-202-364-5856, for Verizon Wireless; orJohn Johnson of Verizon Wireless, +1-240-568-1429,John.H.Johnson@VerizonWireless.com

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

Source: PRNewswire

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