PERSONAL CELL PHONE ACCOUNT OF PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA ACCESSED BY UNAUTHORIZED EMPLOYEES

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam made the following statement today:

 “This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone account.  The account has been inactive for several months.  The device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services.

 “All employees who have accessed the account – whether authorized or not – have been put on immediate leave, with pay.  As the circumstances of each individual employee’s access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions.  Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action.

 We apologize to President-Elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day.”

###

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 70.8 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 71,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).  For more information, visit 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 www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia .

The highly-anticipated Vice Presidential debate tonight at 9pm EDT (Oct. 2) can be seen on your Verizon Wireless phone.  In fact, Verizon Wireless customers have two ways to watch U.S. Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin debate live from St. Louis.

1.  V CAST video: CBS News covers the proceeding, in real-time.

2.  V CAST Mobile TV stations including NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, FNC and CBS are expected to carry the debates live, with their usual news commentary teams.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Verizon Joins LiMo Foundation^™

With Verizon on Board of Directors, LiMo Expands Major Wireless Service Provider

Engagement Across North America, Asia and Europe

LONDON, England; TOKYO, Japan, and BASKING RIDGE, N.J., United States, May 14, 2008—LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry, and Verizon Wireless, the builder and operator of the most reliable wireless network in the U.S., announced today that Verizon has joined LiMo as a Core member and will fill the final seat on LiMo’s board of directors. By participating in LiMo, Verizon hopes to help LiMo unify the mobile industry around openness and Linux as the key enablers to lowering development costs.

“Verizon Wireless is demonstrating itself a champion of openness in mobile innovation by joining the board of LiMo Foundation,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. “Major wireless service providers from across North America, Asia and Europe are now engaged in committed collaboration through LiMo. This offers further concrete evidence that LiMo is positioned at the heart of the rapidly emerging, industry-wide trend to secure the benefits of openness and choice in technology.”

“Verizon Wireless is committed and invested in encouraging innovation, providing developers the opportunity to deliver new wireless choices and expanding the mobile market,” said Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon. “We expect our involvement with LiMo to advance these principles.”

LiMo Foundation is open to all vendors and service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, integrators and independent software vendors. Verizon Wireless joins the foundation’s other 39 members in working within LiMo’s transparent governance model to shape the evolution of the LiMo Platform^™, while remaining entirely free to deliver their own compelling and differentiated services to mobile customers.

“The addition of Verizon Wireless to the LiMo roster is another critical milestone in our foundation’s rapid growth and market impact,” said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo, chairperson of LiMo Foundation. “In technical output, governance constructs and business models, LiMo lives out its belief that openness is the key to unlocking innovation to the benefit of the whole industry and mobile consumers everywhere.”

Launched in January 2007 by six mobile industry leaders—Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone—LiMo was formed to deliver an open and globally consistent software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole industry to catalyze next-generation mobile consumer experiences.

About LiMo Foundation

LiMo Foundation is a dedicated consortium of mobile industry leaders working together within an open and transparent governance model—with shared leadership and shared decision making—to deliver an open and globally consistent handset software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole mobile industry. A full description of LiMo, including its vision, goals, charter, guiding principles, bylaws, and membership information, can be found at www.limofoundation.org.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 67.2 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 69,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: 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 www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

# # #

Media contacts:

Laurie Bowser-Sever                                                 Jeffrey Nelson

Interprose PR (on behalf of LiMo Foundation)              Verizon Wireless

P: +1 919.469.7102                                                  P: +1 908.559.7519

M: +1 919.272.5984                                                 E: jeffrey.nelson (at) verizonwireless.com

E: lbs (at) interprosepr.com                                      

Oral Testimony

Steven E. Zipperstein

Vice President, Legal and External Affairs

and General Counsel

Verizon Wireless

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 15, 2008

Good morning Chairman Markey, Ranking Member Stearns and Members of the Subcommittee. It is a privilege to be with you again to discuss the results of the 700 MHz auction and its importance to the nation’s citizens and our economy.  Thank you for this opportunity to share our views.

In the 10 months since I last appeared before the Subcommittee, Verizon Wireless has hired nearly 12,000 new employees – all within the U.S. – and invested more than $4 billion into our wireless network to expand and improve wireless services.  American consumers expect these improvements, even in a tough economy, thanks to the historic competitiveness of wireless companies in our country.  Simply put, if we don’t stay ahead of the curve, consumers will leave for one of our competitors.

We are optimistic about the future.  Today, I’d like to discuss 3 important developments, which together will drive innovation and economic vibrancy over the next several years:

First: when the 700 MHz spectrum is deployed – by us, by our current wireless competitors, and by the new wireline, cable and satellite entrants – the results will be nothing short of transformative for the nation.

In the auction, Verizon Wireless won licenses for broad and deep spectrum to support a dizzying array of 21^st Century products and services to the American people – things we can’t even imagine today. 

The second development involves the technology we will use to put the 700 MHz spectrum to work - LTE or “Long Term Evolution.”  The speed of this IP-based service will allow customers to enjoy connections matching those of today’s landline broadband networks. 

Customers, application developers and device makers are excited at the promise of significantly improved download speeds.  Applications will not only be brought to market by Verizon Wireless, but will come from the wave of innovation that LTE technology enables . . .  especially in the realm of “machine-to-machine” applications.  We see wireless health monitoring, smart home management and location-based services as three of the big categories that will benefit consumers.  But there are many others: imagine auto companies selling new software to cars over-the-air instead of requiring a shop visit.

            The third element of how Verizon Wireless is transforming the wireless marketplace is through our “Open Development Initiative.”

            Just a few weeks ago, we successfully introduced our Open Development initiative to developers and others in the wireless ecosystem, with more than 400 people live with us in New York and thousands more via webcast and subsequently downloading the proceedings.

With a simple roadmap to bring the big dreams of developers to wireless users, new products and services should begin coming to market later this year.  As we said to the development community when we launched this initiative last year, “Have at it!”

Let’s be clear: as I indicated to the Subcommittee last summer, we don’t think it was necessary for the FCC to impose a fixed, regulatory brand of “openness” on the 700 MHz spectrum auction.

Dynamic market-driven solutions, such as our Open Development Initiative and the Open Handset Alliance, will spur innovation far more quickly and efficiently than static regulatory mandates, especially in an industry as intensely competitive as ours.

While Verizon Wireless is planning how best to use the 700 MHz spectrum, and working with our minority owner, Vodafone, on global trials of 4G technology, large and small companies across the nation are conducting the exact same strategic planning themselves.

In 2008, we continue to battle with other wireless service providers in the marketplace every day, but already the competition is lining up for tomorrow’s 4G world.  Of the total of 1,099 licenses up in the 700 MHz auction, Verizon Wireless bid on 615 licenses, and won 109 of them.  We won about 18% of the licenses we bid on, and less than 10% of the total offered.

Clearly, other companies are set to offer services on their own 4G networks.  There will be four existing national wireless companies - Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and SprintNextel - plus at least two new national competitors from the Cable joint venture and Echostar.  Regional companies including US Cellular, MetroPCS, Cellular South and Leap/Cricket, all supplemented or expanded their existing footprints either with 700 MHz or AWS spectrum. 

Wireless companies will have paid more than 30 billion dollars to the U.S. Treasury in the two 4G spectrum auctions.  And as the technology industry has in the past, we will add billions more to the economy, building new coverage, improving existing coverage, and upgrading to 4G networks.  These investments will fuel the job creation, innovation, and robust competition that have been the hallmarks of the wireless sector for the past two decades.

The auctions are done; now it’s about the future.  People, with incredible new devices and applications, will connect with each other, and with the environment around them, in ways we can only imagine.

Deploying 4G networks on 700 MHz spectrum will unleash a host of new broadband devices and applications to rival anything available today on wired broadband networks – and yet everything will be mobile.  Verizon Wireless is pleased to be a leader at this transformative juncture.

=======================================================

news release

April 15, 2008

Contact: Joe Farren

202.736.3207

CTIA –  Calls for Passage of Cell Tax Fairness Legislation

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tax Day, CTIA-The Wireless Association and its member companies are urging Congress to pass legislation requiring a five-year hiatus on new discriminatory state and local wireless taxes.  To achieve this goal, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Chris Cannon (R-UT) introduced the “Cell Tax Fairness Act” today in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

“The wireless sector of the technology industry continues to be an important driver for growth in our nation’s economy.  Americans don’t just talk on their wireless phones anymore; they access the Internet, get information, pay bills and use wireless to be more productive at work and other every day activities, “ said Lowell McAdam, CTIA-The Wireless Association Chairman and Verizon Wireless President and CEO. “With about 15 percent of each customer’s monthly bill already going to taxes and fees, increasing discriminatory and unfair taxes on wireless customers presents a clear and present danger to future growth.  Policymakers should roll back taxes on wireless customers.”   

According to analysis from a new study that examines trends of taxation on wireless service in the U.S., consumers continue to face a substantial, unfair tax burden, paying over twice the 7.1% rate imposed on other competitive goods and services subject to sales tax.  Between 2003 and 2007, taxes and fees on wireless service increased four times faster than taxes on other goods and services. 

“Keeping wireless taxes at a fair and reasonable level is critical to growing the economy and making the workforce more productive, efficient and informed,” said Steve Largent, CTIA-The Wireless Association President and CEO.  “We should do everything in our power to remove the roadblocks—such as excessive, discriminatory wireless taxes—that stand in the way of progress, and the Cell
Tax Fairness legislation introduced today in the House is a positive step in the right direction.” 

The latest CTIA wireless industry survey released earlier this month revealed that as of year-end 2007 more than 255 million wireless users were recorded in the U.S., roughly 84% of the population.  The survey also showed a dramatic increase in SMS, with more than 48 billion messages reported for the month of December 2007 alone—1.6 billion messages per day.  This represents an increase of 157% over December 2006.  Additionally, a March report issued by the Federal Communications Commission showed that in comparison to other platforms for high-speed internet service, mobile wireless comprised more than 68% of the overall growth in high-speed lines from June 2006 to June 2007.

###

VERIZON WIRELESS APPLAUDS FCC ACTION

ON NATIONAL EMERGENCY ALERT PROGRAM

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a framework for a national emergency alert program, following the recommendations made by the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC). 

Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel at Verizon Wireless said:  “Verizon Wireless applauds the decision by the FCC on the national emergency alert program.  Wireless customers have come to rely on their mobile devices, especially in emergency situations, and this action by the FCC is a significant step toward ensuring alerts that serve the public interest will soon be available to wireless users.”

Verizon Wireless was proud to play a role in developing the recommendations the Commission adopted.  The company’s Chief Technical Officer, Tony Melone, chaired the Alerting Gateway Group, was a member of the Communications Technology Group, and served on the Program Management Group.  Network engineers from Verizon Wireless participated in the CMSAAC process, working with other CMSAAC members and support staff to develop the technical documents on which many of the CMSAAC recommendations are based. 

Verizon Wireless To Issue Device Specs At Open Development Device Conference

02/25/2008

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Verizon Wireless today said its upcoming Open Development Device Conference will feature the release and publication of Version 1.0 of the technical specifications for new wireless devices that will work on its “Any Device, Any App” network-only service option.

The conference, scheduled for March 19 in New York City, will focus on how traditional device and consumer electronics companies and entrepreneurs new to the wireless ecosystem can bring new wireless devices to the marketplace under Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative. The conference will establish shared goals of streamlining the certification and delivery of exciting new devices while preserving the company’s optimal network performance.

Anthony A. Lewis, vice president of the Open Development initiative at Verizon Wireless, said the conference agenda will focus on wireless devices, and that the initial specs will provide an important, tangible building block for device development. “Version 1.0 will provide the roadmap for wireless device visionaries and tinkerers, as well as existing device makers, to create consumer products not offered directly by the company, which can run on the nation’s most reliable network,” Lewis said.

Lewis also noted that input from developers and technologists during the conference might refine the initial device specifications, but device developers are expected to be able to use Version 1.0 as the foundation for device certification immediately after they are presented. In the coming weeks, Verizon Wireless plans to dive deeper with application developers to help match applications with device designers.

While the conference agenda on March 19 will focus on the goals and standards of the initiative, March 20 will be designed for one-on-one visits between attendees, developers and the Verizon Wireless Open Development team.

For consumers, the network-only option, which is expected to be available later this year, will provide the option to use these wireless devices and new applications not offered directly by Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative is driven by the company’s desire to encourage innovation, give customers new wireless choices, and quickly address opportunities to expand the wireless market.

For those not attending the conference in person, the entire proceeding will be webcast. Look for more details in the coming days at www.verizonwireless.com/opendevelopment.

Dow Jones reported that reps from three of the providers – including Verizon Wireless – correctly answered questions about his or her company’s ETF policies.   Reps at AT&T, which announced last fall that it would implement a pro-rated ETF, but has yet to provide more details, apparently gave several different responses to Consumers Union – none of which were right.

While it was only a small sample, I’m not surprised our reps knew the answers.  Verizon Wireless was the first national provider to put a declining ETF policy back in November 2006 (after first announcing the change in June 2006).  Handset prices can be kept low because service providers use ETFs to subsidize those devices over the length of a contract, and if they choose to leave their contract before it expires, customers are asked to pay that fee.

For more than a year, customers who sign a new contract with us are eligible for the declining ETF; if a customer chooses to leave before the contract expires, we’ll take $5 off the ETF for every month of the contract that’s completed.   

This move on ETFs was just one in a series of consumer friendly policies Verizon Wireless has introduced over the past few years.  Our most recent was expanding our Worry Free Guarantee to ensure customers who changed their calling or texting plans in the middle of a contract wouldn’t have their contracts extended. 

Here’s a link to the whole story: 

There have been recent news reports suggesting that a Seattle-based company called Intelius has created (or is creating) a cell phone directory, selling "unpublished and unlisted" numbers --including cell phone numbers.  The company has also apparently just filed for an IPO, so it claims not to be communicating externally due to a "quiet period."

As you know, Verizon Wireless has consistently refused to provide our customers' numbers to any directory or third party, and we will continue to refuse to release this info.  Intelius seems to be data-mining on the Internet for private information, which we find entirely unacceptable.  Our stance on the issue effectively halted the industry-sponsored project a few years ago.  (What good is a directory if  65+ million customer numbers aren't included?)  Our position hasn't changed, and we still think a wireless directory is a "dumb idea." 

General Counsel Steve Zipperstein says simply, "Stop it," and urges lawmakers to take steps to protect Americans' privacy rights. 

Because in the virtual world space is virtually unlimited, we’ll be soliciting questions from those unable to attend the conference in New York City here at Policyblog.  We’ll answer as many as we can and publish them together in a future blog post (not in comments).  That way, everyone can see how we think this initiative will encourage innovation, give customers wireless choices, and quickly address opportunities to expand the wireless market. 

We’ll have a post that specifically asks for your questions and spells out when and how we’ll answer them. But if you feel the urge, by all means please submit your questions in comments below and we’ll add them to the mix.

VERIZON WIRELESS TO HOST OPEN DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE MARCH 19-20, 2008 IN NEW YORK CITY

            BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and WASHINGTON, D.C. – Verizon Wireless today announced that the company’s much-anticipated Open Development Conference will be held in New York City on March 19-20, 2008.  The announcement was made by Anthony A. Lewis, Verizon Wireless’ newly-appointed vice president of the Open Development initiative, during a panel discussion today hosted by New America Foundation.  Information about Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative is online at www.verizonwireless.com/opendevelopment.    

 News of the conference, which will focus largely on development for new devices to run on the award-winning Verizon Wireless network, comes just eight weeks after Verizon Wireless announced that later this year it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company.  Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative is driven by the company’s desire to encourage innovation, give customers wireless choices, and quickly address opportunities to expand the wireless market.  Higher data speeds and throughput performance that will come with the rollout of its fourth generation broadband network will open the door to a surge in new consumer electronics enabled by wireless connectivity.     

Verizon Wireless is structuring the conference for the development community.  The company encourages developers from the device community to attend the two-day event, where they can learn about the technical standards needed for devices to run on the Verizon Wireless network.

            “This initial conference is for developers of devices – because before consumers can have open access, you have to have open development,” said Lewis.  “In hosting this conference, our aim is to jump start the development community by sharing information needed to develop devices for our network that achieve our network performance goals while making it easy for them to deliver devices.”

Lewis also indicated that while the company is listening to a segment of customers who want another choice without full service, Verizon Wireless will continue to make available a full-service offering – from retail stores where customers can shop, to 24/7 customer service and technical support, to an easy-to-use handset interface and optimized software applications.  

For more information about Verizon Wireless’ Open Development Conference, visit www.verizonwireless.com/opendevelopment.  

# # #

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 63.7 million customers. The largest U.S. wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 68,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).  Find more information on the Web at 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 www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

We welcome the support of Google, handset makers and others for our goal of providing more open development of applications on mobile handsets. In today's wireless marketplace, companies compete fiercely by offering customers what they want: reliability, great customer service, and innovative and compelling products and services. Our competitive marketplace is a tremendous laboratory for innovation, where great ideas bubble to the top and resonate with customers.

See related coverage here and here.

Let’s start with the European experience.  Viruses and Trojans are part of the unlocked handset experience.  Just imagine children’s mobile phones receiving some of the indecent messages that come into e-mail boxes everyday.  “Open” devices simply lower standards. 

In contrast to Europe, handsets provided by U.S. carriers have software that protects consumers from fraud and theft.  In 2004, Verizon Wireless took an additional step and refused to participate in a national wireless phone directory, effectively halting the project.  A year later – in the first of its kind lawsuit, Verizon Wireless began to prosecute pretexters who tried to sell confidential customer telephone records.  As these examples demonstrate, we offer the consumer a complete system. 

Our business is service, not hardware.  Any comparisons to a PC/Internet ecosystem are misplaced.  We deliver safe and reliable service.

Verizon is hardly alone.  The U.S. has more than 160 wireless carriers, who serve over 240 million subscribers.  In this fiercely competitive market, U.S. operators obsess over quality customer experiences and choices.  Carriers customize handsets to optimize voice quality and data services. 

Contrary to the Journal’s assertion, Europe’s one-size fits all portability comes at the expense of consumer choice and price.  Even though portable SIM cards can go from handset to handset, high roaming costs mean most consumers opt for a new SIM card in each country.  Certainly sounds more expensive.  Turns out the U.S. has lower prices for voice and data services than anywhere in the world I can name.

As part of our voluntary agreement with the New York Attorney General, our advertising of BroadbandAccess and NationalAccess wireless data plans has changed.  For the vast majority of users, our broadband EVDO network will provide everything they need for Internet access. Some customers - current and former - will hear from us soon with how they may be impacted from our agreement with the NY AG.  We expect to share those details here as well.

Click here to see the “older” ads.

Click here to see the more recent language.

UPDATE: The above links are fixed

The notice that was sent (and the cause of some buzz) simply alerts our customers that Verizon Wireless may share customer information with the Verizon group of companies. 

In other words, we are keeping all the data in question in the family – unless you tell us not to. 

Our customers are asking us for bundles that provide home and wireless services, and the sharing of information -- like where our wired network customers overlap with wireless -- allows us to provide these bundles.

We believe that it will benefit our customers to be able to share information with Verizon affiliates, so that they can receive information about all products and services that Verizon has to offer, including bundled offerings of Verizon Telecom and Verizon Wireless. Customers who don't want that information can tell us so, by “opting out”.

If a Verizon Wireless customer doesn't want his/her information shared in this way, Verizon Wireless will honor the customer's request.  Verizon Wireless has a long-standing policy of guarding personal customer information. 

The Opt-Out notices we're providing to our customers are so they can opt-out of our sharing their basic information with other Verizon companies, and that's it.  We're only asking customers whether they want to opt out now, because we wanted to make sure our back-office systems - I.T., customer service, etc. - were all ready to go to handle customer questions.

There's a right way to send Opt-Out notices; the FCC rules themselves prescribe specifically that opt-out is the way to share information with telecommunications affiliates, to market telecom services.  FCC rules also provide certain required language, which we followed.

FCC is also clear about this: you use "Opt-Out" with customers if you're looking to share across affiliates/parent companies, etc. - so customers would be getting information from within the same family of products/services.  "Opt-In" is required if a company were addressing the issue of sharing customer information beyond - for example to non-telecom services.  We aren't doing that.

But sometimes just a few seconds of a song can mark innovation in the marketplace.  That’s why the elusive ring tones from Led Zeppelin – and ringbacks and more – becoming available through our service today is a big deal.  As the story in the New York Times states, this is the first time the legendary band’s music will be available digitally – and we’re the exclusive wireless provider of these classic songs.

The Verizon Wireless exclusive to distribute the band’s songs doesn’t just happen because some of us are fans, but because we compete day in and day out to bring relevant, innovative services to our customers, and we deliver them on the best wireless network in the country. 

From competition comes better services, and we – and our competitors in the industry – have been allowed and encouraged to compete hard in the marketplace, which in turn brings innovative services to market.  Our goal is to win new customers and to keep our current customers, and we do that by providing better services than ever before.   

Contrary to some of our critics’ ideas that the industry needs more regulation because we’re dazed and confused, we’re out there competing for every last customer, every single day.  After all, innovation comes from competition, not from regulation.  At Verizon Wireless and within the rest of the wireless industry, innovation is alive and well.

Last week, Verizon promptly fixed the misinterpretation of an outdated policy, which had been created in a different era to deal with commercial messages used to reach many wireless customers at the same time.   As with many communications companies, we had established advertising standards to guard, for example, against inappropriate content reaching children.

But the world has changed. The hybrid model that combines traits of text messaging between individuals and mass commercial communications is today used by political-advocacy groups reaching consumers who intentionally choose to receive those messages on their cellphones.  That’s why, on September 27^th, we said that we made a mistake and we immediately made the requested text messaging services available to NARAL. We also updated our policy: We will provide “short code” text message services to any group that is delivering legal content to customers who opt-in to get it.

We’re not going to screen political speech by whether we agree with it. It’s important to us to protect the ability of consumers to “opt in” to the free flow of ideas.

The issue reaches beyond any one company. We need a dialogue on how we promote the free flow of ideas through evolving and dynamic technologies. We are going to work hard to ensure that parents can control the content their kids receive. We will work with parents’ groups, industry associations and policymakers to establish appropriate advertising standards for these new hybrid means of communications. Those standards will enhance the free flow of ideas and our political process, while protecting children from unwanted content.

No single entity, including the government, can keep up with the fast-paced changes in technology – and the new questions they raise. That’s why governmental intervention is inappropriate. The marketplace of ideas, even with an occasional controversy, is working. Together, we can all make it work even better.

“The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident.

“Upon learning about this situation, senior Verizon Wireless executives immediately reviewed the decision and determined it was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy.  That policy, developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children.

“Verizon Wireless is proud to provide services such as text messaging, which are being harnessed by organizations and individuals communicating their diverse opinions about issues and topics.  We have great respect for this free flow of ideas and will continue to protect the ability to communicate broadly through our messaging service.”

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving more than 62.1 million customers.  The largest U.S. wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 67,000 employees nationwide.  The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).  Find more information on the Web at 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 www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Mr. Andrew Rosenthal

Editorial Page Editor

The New York Times

620 Eighth Avenue

New York, NY 10018

To the Editor:

The Times’s Aug. 6 editorial argues that “closed networks” are the reason “cell phone technology in the United States is so primitive compared with Europe’s and Japan’s.”  

If the American model, promoted by the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to allow market forces to prevail, is primitive, what explains why 240 million subscribers rely heavily on wireless devices to stay safe, to stay connected and be productive? 

The U.S. wireless market boasts significantly lower prices for voice and data services and the most advanced 3G networks in the world. 

Wireless is one of the most competitive industries in the nation.  Evidence abounds, as the FCC itself attests in its recent state of the industry report, citing increasing bottom-line value for American wireless consumers.

A strong, competitive marketplace and steady innovation have brought the U.S. wireless consumers to this point -- hardly primitive, and well ahead of the rest of the world.   

Sincerely,

Jim Gerace

VP – Corporate Communications