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Verizon Wireless and Loopt Announce Relationship to Deliver Social Mapping Service to Mobile Phones

Posted on: Friday, 28 March 2008, 09:00 CDT

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless service provider, and Loopt(TM), a revolutionary social-mapping service, announced today Loopt will be available next month on select Verizon Wireless phones.

With Loopt, Verizon Wireless customers can leverage their phones' location-based services capabilities to share location information, status messages and geo-tagged photos with their community of friends. Loopt users can view where friends in their private network are located via a map displayed on their mobile phones and connect and share their locations with anyone in their address books or AIM(R) buddy lists. Detailed Loopt maps that show Verizon Wireless users where friends are, what they are doing, and how to meet up with them, transform their Verizon Wireless phones into active social tools to connect, share and explore the real world.

"Loopt offers Verizon Wireless customers a fun, unique and powerful way to connect with friends and share information," said Ryan Hughes, vice president of digital media programming for Verizon. "Loopt enhances the mobile experience by letting friends stay in touch with and informed of their friends' lives -- wherever they go."

"Location is the redefining element of mobile communication and the consumer experience. Location interoperability and accessibility is the gateway that extends the reach, value and power of mobile devices for all consumers," said Sam Altman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Loopt. "In co-operation with Verizon Wireless, we are laying the foundation for mass consumer awareness and adoption of Loopt location-based services with a focus on user privacy and security."

Loopt, the social mapping industry leader, offers the most intuitive and effective privacy controls and security features for end users. Loopt is 100 percent permission-based and users share location information only with their known friends via private networks. In addition, Loopt users can easily turn location-sharing on or off at any time on a friend-by-friend basis or for all friends at once. Loopt regularly works with organizations such as the Family Online Safety Institute, ConnectSafely.org, the Center for Democracy & Technology, and is TRUSTe certified.

Verizon Wireless customers will be able to purchase Loopt beginning in April in the Tools on the Go and Featured Applications shopping aisle in the Get It Now(R) virtual store. Loopt will be available for $3.99 monthly access. Verizon Wireless customers will be able to get Loopt on more than 20 popular Get It Now-capable phones, including the Chocolate by LG, the MOTORIZR(TM) Z6tv and Verizon Wireless G'zOne Type-S. Download charges for Get It Now applications vary and airtime or megabyte charges may apply when browsing, downloading and using certain applications, and standard text messaging rates apply. Customers need a Get It Now-enabled handset and Verizon Wireless digital service to access the Get It Now virtual store.

For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, customers can visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/.

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.

About Loopt

Loopt, based in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, has created a revolutionary social-mapping service that changes the way friends connect, share and explore in the mobile environment. Leveraging the latest location-based technologies, Loopt automatically updates and delivers friend location maps, messages and alerts on mobile handsets and the Web. Loopt was designed with privacy considerations at its core and offers a variety of effective and easy-to-use privacy controls for subscribers. Loopt works with leading mobile, social networking, and online privacy and security organizations such as the Center for Democracy & Technology, Family Online Safety Institute (member, board of directors), Cyber Safe California (member, advisory board), ConnectSafely.org, Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee, and Ponemon Institute. Loopt is also TRUSTe certified. For more information, please visit http://www.loopt.com/.

Verizon Wireless

CONTACT: Jeffrey Nelson of Verizon Wireless, +1-908-559-7519,Jeffrey.Nelson@verizonwireless.com; or Amanda Sanyal of SutherlandGold Groupfor Loopt, +1-650-520-5419, amanda@sutherlandgold.com

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

Source: PRNewswire

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