More Cable Choice Comes to Maryland as Verizon Launches FiOS TV in Harford County

More Cable Choice Comes to Maryland as Verizon Launches FiOS TV in Harford
County

FiOS TV Is the Only TV Service Delivered Over Nation's Most Advanced,
All-Fiber-Optic Network Straight to Consumers' Homes

BEL AIR, Md., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The future of television has arrived in
Harford County as Verizon introduces FiOS TV to more than 3,400 homes and
businesses via the company's revolutionary all-fiber-optic network.

In Maryland, Verizon's FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services are available to
dozens of communities in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, Howard, Montgomery
and Prince George's counties, including Aberdeen, Annapolis, Bel Air and
LaPlata.

Verizon delivers FiOS TV over the nation's largest digital, all-fiber network,
which has earned certification from the independent Fiber to the Home Council
for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes and businesses.

FiOS TV scored highest in J.D. Power's "2008 Residential Television Service
Satisfaction Study for the East Region." And a leading consumer magazine gave
FiOS TV the top rating in its most recent survey of television service, with
top marks in all six categories it measured: channel choice, image quality,
sound quality, reliability, value and support.

"Cable just can't match the high-definition channels or the innovative
features and enhancements FiOS TV customers enjoy," said William R. Roberts,
Verizon's regional president for Maryland and Washington, D.C. "We've
harnessed the vast capacity of our advanced fiber-optic network to deliver a
revolutionary, new entertainment experience."

Currently, FiOS TV is available to 9.7 million homes in 14 states: California,
Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

This spring, Verizon is offering consumers the ultimate home upgrade by making
it easy and affordable to switch from old-fashioned cable to the power of
Verizon's advanced all-fiber-optic network and FiOS services.

Packages of FiOS Internet, FiOS TV and Verizon Freedom unlimited local and
long-distance calling services are available starting at under $100 a month.
New customers who order a FiOS service bundle by June 20 can get an even
sweeter deal with a current promotion that offers up to $150 back in the form
of a prepaid card, a two-year price guarantee, and premium installation at no
extra cost by a specially trained technician who sets up a powerful home
network from start to finish. For details on FiOS services and the promotion,
visit http://www.verizon.com/ultimateupgrade.

Customers also can call their local Verizon sales office or 888-GET FiOS
(888-438-3467). Information on construction schedules is available at
www.verizon.com/md.

Small and medium-sized businesses interested in business-grade FiOS services
can visit www.verizon.com/bizfiostv or call 877-FiOS BIZ (877-346-7249) for
more information.

FiOS TV Service Highlights

FiOS TV service highlights include:

-- More than 500 all-digital channels grouped by genres such as
entertainment, sports, news, marketplace, movies and family, making it
easy for audiences to find their favorite programming.
-- Approximately 110 high-definition (HD) channels in Maryland, with
extraordinary clarity and theater-quality sound.
-- An innovative interactive media guide (IMG) that helps customers
quickly
and easily find and enjoy content from TV listings, VOD catalogs and
the
digital video recorder (DVR), as well as personal music and photos
from
a home network. Among the features of the IMG are:
-- Multi-Room DVR - Verizon's Home Media DVR allows customers to
stream recorded HD and standard-definition (SD) programs to up to
six other TV sets throughout the home. This includes the ability
to
watch three separately recorded shows on three TV sets at the same
time, plus pause recorded programming in one room and continue
watching in another.
-- Widgets - Customers have one-touch, on-demand access to local
weather and traffic reports shown on TV screens. Widgets provide
local traffic and weather reports, daily local and national news
headlines, daily national sports headlines, community news, and
daily horoscopes.
-- Free casual games - With the remote control and an HD set-top box,
customers can access chess, solitaire and wordplay.
-- Remote DVR Management - Verizon FiOS TV customers now have the
option to remotely control their Home Media DVRs either online or
through any wireless handset with a data plan. All FiOS TV DVR
customers can now remotely control their DVRs online. On-the-go
FiOS TV subscribers can use the service to remotely review, change
or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and
search TV and video-on-demand listings, set parental controls, and
more.
-- ESPN Fantasy Sports - Personalized Fantasy Football stats
displayed
on customers' TV screens on any ESPN channel, for ESPN online
registered participants. Customers can view rosters, box scores,
scoring leaders and player information. ESPN Fantasy Sports also
will be accessible via FiOS TV Widgets and Games.
-- Video on Demand (VOD) - Industry-leading library with more than
14,000 titles per month, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD
library includes more than 1,300 HD titles per month, more than
1,000 of which are free.
-- "What's Hot on FiOS TV" - Features information on the
most-popular programs currently being broadcast in the region and
the most popular VOD titles.
-- "Return to Paused Programming" - Allows customers to pause
live programming, change channels, and then return to the paused
program and pick up where they left off.

-- Channel sorting options - Customers can create two separate lists
of
favorite channels for family members. Customers also can filter
channels in the guide by genre, for instances where a customer
only
may want to see HD content, international channels or kids
programming, among others.

Programming choices for Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Russian and other
multicultural audiences are available in every market, making FiOS TV an
outlet for emerging and independent networks to showcase their diverse
programming.

FiOS TV is delivered over Verizon's all-fiber-optic network, which brings the
power and capacity of fiber optics directly into people's homes and has
industry-leading quality and reliability. Fiber delivers amazingly sharp
pictures and sound, and has the capacity to transmit a wide array of
high-definition programming that is so clear and intense it seems to leap from
the TV screen.

The value of FiOS TV extends to the installation and customer support.
Specially trained Verizon technicians will install the service and acquaint
subscribers with FiOS TV features and services. Verizon is waiving the
installation fee for up to three existing TV outlets, and there is no charge
to install a needed optical network terminal at the subscriber's home.
Charges for other installation services, such as additional outlets, may
apply. Verizon provides 24 x 7 technical assistance by phone from its
specialized Fiber Solutions Centers.

FiOS Internet Highlights

Verizon's 50/20 FiOS Internet connection is the fastest available to Harford
County consumers, and the company's 20/20 symmetrical service is the first of
its kind commercially available to U.S. consumers on a mass scale. Pioneering
a new category of broadband for the American consumer, Verizon's symmetrical
FiOS provides the ultra-fast, two-way speeds crucial for such burgeoning
online activities as video conferencing, social networking and super-fast
uploading of electronic photo albums or home videos, as well as multi-player
gaming and online work collaboration.

For the second year in a row, Verizon's FiOS Internet service was named the
top pick in PC Magazine's 2008 readers' survey and also was named a winner in
PC World Magazine's The 100 Best Products of 2008 -- the second year in a row
the broadband service made that list.

At 50 Mbps, downloading a 5 GB (gigabyte) file, such as 112-minute,
high-definition movie purchased online, takes approximately 13.3 minutes,
while a 50 MB (megabyte), or 60-minute, Web video takes 8 seconds, and a 5 MB
MP3 music file takes less than eight-tenths of a second.

Using a 20 Mbps upstream broadband connection, a consumer could upload a 250
MB file of 200 photos in about 90 seconds, instead of the roughly 47 minutes
it takes over a 768 kilobit-per-second (Kbps) upstream connection. A 3 GB
file, such as a one-hour family video shot with a high-definition video
camera, could be uploaded in around 20 minutes, compared with more than nine
hours with 768 Kbps (kilobits per second) upstream.

* NOTE: actual (throughput) speeds will vary.

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 86 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 237,000 and last year generated consolidated operating
revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit
www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and
biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other
information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at
www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News
Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news
releases.

SOURCE Verizon

Media, Sandra Arnette of Verizon, +1-410-393-7109,
sandra.u.arnette@verizon.com