[February 27, 2009]

Verizon Wireless Spends $150 Million in 2008 to Enhance Voice and Data Services Across Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless announced today that all customers in Tennessee can now access the company's wireless voice and data services, as part of the company's $150 million statewide network investment in 2008.

Tennessee's leading wireless provider now has coverage in all 95 counties and approximately 34,700 square miles across the state. The company's cumulative investment in the state of Tennessee is over $700 million since 2003.

According to Terry Dison, Director of System Performance for Verizon Wireless in Tennessee, about one third of the 2008 network investment went toward expanding the company's Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) fourth generation (3G) wide-area network technology to all markets across the state, expanding already established metropolitan markets, tourist area attractions and heavily traveled interstate roads. These areas include: -- Tri-Cities area: Johnson County towns of Mountain City, Doeville, Butler, Shady Valley and Pandora, Allen Grove, Crosby and Morristown College.

-- Greater Knoxville area: Town of Maloneyville, Maryville (including Lamar Alexander Parkway and McGhee Tyson Airport) and Louisville.

-- Greater Chattanooga area: Town of Bakewell, Birchwood and landmark areas of Cherokee Trail, Signal Mountain, Prentice Cooper State Forest and State Road 27.

-- Greater Nashville area: Northern suburban areas of Millersville and Hendersonville. Eastern suburbs of Mount Juliet and I-40 West of Lebanon. The Wilson Pike area of Brentwood, Cool Springs, and West Harpeth. Briley Parkway near the John Tune Airport, Whites Creek and Chapmansboro. West Harpeth, Bon Aqua, Lewis Hollow, New Johnsonville and West Columbia. Greater Cookeville areas including Turkey Creek, Northeast Crossville, Fairfield Glade and Tennessee Tech University.

Murfreesboro areas include Overall, Dowelltown, and Woodbury. Southern areas of Middle Tennessee include Lynnville, Pulaski (North area) and Belfast.

-- West Tennessee: Northern areas of Shelby county including May Street Park, the Memphis Motorsport Park, Raleigh, Millington, Quail Ridge, Brunswick Road, Houston Levee near Hwy 64, and Fisherville.

Southeastern areas of Shelby county include Southwind and Forrest Wind. Greater West Tennessee towns include Cedar Grove, South Humboldt, Henry, Porter Court, Puryear, McCutchen Heights, North Martin, downtown Dyersburg, and Adamsville.

"Ninety Five percent of our Tennessee customers now have the convenience of accessing Verizon Wireless' high-speed wireless internet service, real-time e-mail and entertainment services anywhere they have cell phone service," comments Dison. "In addition to convenience, we have the most reliable and safe wireless voice and data network available, so customers can feel confident that their information is secure when making online purchases and banking transactions, and that it will be up and running whenever they need it." As the state's leading wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless employs more than 2,300 people statewide, operates a Customer Contact Center in Murfreesboro and a $54 million regional headquarters in Cool Springs.

Teams of "Test Man" technicians perform network testing daily and traveled approximately 34,000 miles across the state in 2008. The test teams ride in special vehicles loaded with computers, wireless phones and other equipment to measure and ensure strength and reliability versus other carriers.

Verizon Wireless is committed to offering customers the most reliable service on the nation's best wireless voice and data network. To support that claim, the company's test engineers make more than 3 million voice call attempts and more than 16 million data tests annually on Verizon Wireless' and other national wireless carriers' networks while traveling almost 1 million miles of the most frequently traveled roadways nationwide in specially equipped, company-owned quality test vehicles. In fact, the company's "most reliable wireless network"* in the nation claim is based on these network studies.

For more information about Verizon Wireless products and services in Tennessee, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/.

* Network details at http://www.verizonwireless.com/bestnetwork.

About Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable and largest wireless voice and data network, serving more than 80 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with more than 85,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, visit 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: Karen Schulz, Verizon Wireless, +1-864-987-2006,Karen.Schulz@VerizonWireless.com Web Site: http://www.verizonwireless.com/http://www.verizonwireless.com/bestnetworkhttp://www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: