Introduction

Who We Are

Verizon is a global leader in delivering innovation in communications, information and entertainment.

We offer consumers, businesses and government first-in-class voice, data and video services over superior wireline and wireless networks that meet customer demand for speed, mobility, security and control.

We are a company that on average over the past six years has invested more than $10 billion annually to deploy the most advanced broadband and wireless communications networks in the United States.

We are a company deploying the networks that are enabling the innovation, economic growth and job creation that we see in broadband and Internet-based businesses, and which have enabled the successful growth of companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay. Our innovative products and services enhance customers' lives and empower individuals for success in today's economy and tomorrow's increasingly competitive, global environment.

We believe that, by delivering the innovation customers want, we can win in the marketplace, while creating innovative platforms that can help solve some of our nation's more pressing challenges: economic growth; job-creation; health care reform; education reform; energy conservation; and environmental sustainability.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Verizon Communications is made up of three network-based business groups: Verizon Wireless, Verizon Business, and Verizon Telecom. We are a Dow 30 company, headquartered in New York City, with operations based in Basking Ridge, N.J.

Financial

• $93.5 billion in annual revenue (2007)
• Net income before special items (non-GAAP): $6.9 billion (2007)
• Fortune 500 rank: 17 (2008)
• Capital investments: $17.5 billion (2007)
• Pension plan assets: $42.7 billion (2007)

Employees

• 228,315 employees
• $22 billion provided in annual compensation and benefits (2007)
• More than $3.5 billion in annual spending for health-care coverage for more than 900,000 employees, retirees and family members (2007)
• $1.5 billion in retiree health-care benefits (2007)
• Approximately 41 percent of employees are union-represented (2007)
• 35 percent of Verizon's employees are minorities (2007)
• 39 percent of Verizon's management team are minorities (2007)

Verizon Wireless

Verizon is on the cutting edge of mobile communications and mobile broadband technology. We currently operate the most reliable 3G wireless network, enabling broadband speeds on a wide variety to mobile tools, from laptops to PDAs and handsets. Our devices offer a host of different communications tools: text and picture messaging, downloadable ringtones and ringbacks, games, news alerts and social networking applications, such as Facebook. Our V CAST service offers live, mobile TV (from ESPN to the Food Network), music downloads, video clips and other multimedia services. More customers use Verizon Wireless than any other wireless brand.

• $43.9 billion in revenue (2007)
• Most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving more than 70.8 million customers
• Highest customer loyalty based on industry-low churn (customer turnover) rate: 1.33 percent in 3Q08
• Highest profitability and cost efficiency in the industry
• More than 43 million customers have broadband-capable devices
• More than 80 billion text messages exchanged in 3Q08
• Joint venture with Vodafone Group Plc (Verizon owns 55 percent)

Verizon Business

Verizon is the global IP leader, ranked No.1 by TeleGeography as the most-connected public Internet backbone network for the 10th consecutive year. Our data networks cover more than 485,000 global route miles, and we are adding to that total as one of the founding investors in the Trans-Pacific fiber-optic cable currently being deployed between the United States and China. We serve thousands of businesses around the globe, enabling the global economy, and serve as the No. 1 communications provider to the federal government.

• $21.1 billion in revenue (2007)
• Created by merger of Verizon and MCI in Jan. 2006
• Serves 98 percent of Fortune 500
• 321 offices across six continents, including operations in 75 countries
• Global IP network serves 2,700 cities in 150 countries
• Investment in more than 65 submarine cable systems worldwide
• Seven satellite facilities throughout continental U.S., plus Hawaii and Guam

Verizon Telecom

Verizon is deploying the only fiber-to-the-premises network in the United States. Currently, we have passed more than 12 million premises, in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Called FiOS, it is the most advanced high-speed broadband network in the United States, with the capacity and technology to provide 100 megabits, with the ability to offer even higher speeds in the future. Our FiOS Internet service, with more than 2.2 million subscribers, offers consumers speeds of up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 20 Mbps upstream, with a 20/20 Mbps symmetrical service in some areas. Our FiOS TV service - on the same fiber line as voice and data services - offers our over 1.6 million TV customers more than 400 digital video and music channels, 11,000 video-on-demand titles each month, and more than 100 high-definition TV channels, the most of any TV-service provider. In locations where FiOS is not yet deployed, Verizon offers DSL broadband services, available to over 80 percent of households served, and with more than 6.3 million customers.

• $30.8 billion in revenue (2007)
• 107,850 employees
• 99.9 percent in network reliability
• Average of 1 billion calls connected per day
• Nation's largest all-fiber network connected directly to customers
• FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services over Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises network

A Great Place to Work and a Good Corporate Citizen

Verizon provides challenging and satisfying careers in an exciting and dynamic industry. Our employees live our values and adhere to the highest ethical standards. Our employees live and work in the communities we serve, and we take pride in supporting those communities in many different ways.

• $67.4 million given by the Verizon Foundation to nonprofit organizations (2007)
• 485,300 hours donated in volunteer service to nonprofit organizations by employees (2007)
• $13.4 million contributed or raised by employees through the Verizon Volunteers program (2007)
• 13,722 nonprofit organizations received time or money from employees (2007)
• $11.7 million in matching gifts to nonprofits (2007)
• More than 1 million no-longer-used phones collected by the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program to benefit victims of domestic violence (2007)
• No. 1 in 2008 and 2006 and No. 6 in 2007: DiversityInc's "Top 50 Companies for Diversity"
• More than $3.1 billion in goods and services purchased from minority-owned businesses (2007)
• Working Mother magazine's 2001 - 2008 lists for "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" and 2006 - 2008 lists for "Best Companies for Multicultural Women"
• One of the largest private fleets in U.S. with 58,180 motor vehicles (2007)
• 156 million square feet of real estate (2007)
• $144 billion in payroll, receivables, payables and remittance transactions processed annually (2007)
• $35 billion in annual procurements (2007)
• 22 percent - the increase in Verizon's health-care costs during the past three years (2005 - 2007)
• 900,000 employees, retirees and family members served by Verizon Human Resources (2007)
• $5.9 billion paid by Verizon in federal, state and other taxes (2007)

Verizon and the National Agenda

Verizon has long been a communications industry leader, delivering high-tech, and innovative technologies, coupled with exemplary security to our customers - from private citizens to the government. Verizon is leading the way with new technologies and services that enhance overall U.S. competitiveness and economic security.

As a leading technology and innovation company, we help provide private-sector solutions to public policy challenges. Our experience, expertise and the technologies we have invested in and deployed across America help provide a unique perspective on public policy matters. We have a long history of working cooperatively with federal, state and local governments, and will continue to do so.

Looking ahead to priority issues for the 111th Congress, we look forward to working with Congress and other policymakers to promote our shared agenda, including:

• stimulating economic growth through competition;
• solving social problems through broadband deployment; and
• encouraging broadband deployment to all Americans

Stimulating Economic Growth Through Competition

Broadband networks enable the global economy, and are platforms for future growth and innovation to meet societal needs. The market for broadband is producing what a competitive market should: consumer choice and innovation. Investment - and consequently increased availability - is robust. At the same time, trends in price, quantity, and quality benefit consumers: the price of a basic wireline broadband connection has fallen by at least half since 2001; home broadband adoption has increased steadily from 33 percent in 2005 to 55 percent in 2008; and innovation and investment have driven speeds up, from 756 kbps-1.5 mbps earlier this decade to 50 mbps with Verizon FiOS today. The broadband marketplace is vibrant - characterized by competition, job creation, investment and innovation - and is improving the way we live and learn, work and shop and play.

Investment

The communications industry's investment in cable, wireless and landline networks runs about $70 billion a year - more than federal spending on interstate highways, railroads, and airports. Verizon is investing to build out its fiber-to-the-home network (called FiOS), maintain and expand our existing DSL broadband, backbone and 3G wireless broadband networks, and to move forward with plans for our 4G network. While overall private investment has fallen 6 percent since mid-2006, communications equipment investment has grown 10 percent. Indeed, since 2003 investment in communications equipment has risen more than 40 percent - about one-and-a-half times faster than overall equipment investment.

Businesses are investing in information technology, as well. In the first quarter of 2008 U.S. businesses invested more in information technology than in transportation, industrial machinery and all other equipment combined. In the last four quarters investment in information technology has totaled about $486 billion.

Employment

There's a reason policymakers in Washington are talking about broadband deployment as part of the economic stimulus plans. Employment in the tech, communications, and computing sector, has accounted for 49 percent of new job creation in the last 12 months. For the entire U.S. private, non-farm economy, this equals an increase of about 300,000 jobs annually. Other studies show that employment in both manufacturing and services industries (especially finance, education and health care) is positively related to broadband penetration. For example, for every one-percentage point increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment is projected to increase by 2 to 3-tenths of a percentage points per year.

Problem-Solving Through Broadband Deployment

Consumers and businesses are letting us know that they see broadband and wireless technologies as integral to their lives and livelihoods. Increasingly we see opportunities, particularly with next-generation fiber and wireless 4G technologies, for broadband and IT to be parts of the solutions to many of our challenges.

Energy and Environment

Sound energy policies ensure that we reduce our dependence on oil and promote energy responsibility.

Information communications technology (ICT) use in the last ten years has already displaced between six to 10 percent of the carbon emissions that otherwise would have been generated. The Global e-Sustainability Initiative's SMART 2020 Report predicts increased use of ICT applications (such as smart logistics, smart buildings, smart grids, smart motors and industrial processes, and dematerialization or substitution) can reduce carbon emissions by 15 to 20 percent by 2020 and help achieve national energy-efficiency and environmental goals.

The American Consumer Institute estimates that expanded use of broadband technology over the next ten years could reduce greenhouse emissions by more than a billion tons, which, if converted into energy saved, would represent 11 percent of annual U.S. oil imports.

Additionally, commonly used ICT and broadband technologies have the ability to reduce energy use further:

• Teleworking will reduce greenhouse emissions by almost 600 million tons due to reduced auto use, business energy conservation and reduced office construction.
• Online commerce, such as the use of electronic billing and online shopping, is expected to reduce greenhouse gases by 206.3 million tons by reducing gas used to drive to a store, paper used in traditional mail billing, etc.
• If Teleconferencing replaces just 10 percent of air travel over the next ten years, we would reduce greenhouse emissions by 199.8 million tons.
• The use of electronic delivery saves paper and can reduce emissions by 67.2 million tons. For example, online downloads instead of CDs, DVDs and games saves plastic.

Verizon encourages policymakers to make ICT and broadband networks a key part of the solution in any energy policy reform bill or climate change bill, particularly integrating telework and other energy-saving applications. Verizon also recommends an initial focus on four high-impact opportunities:

Smart Grids

• Provide incentives for utilities to invest in Smart Grid technologies and energy efficiency improvements.
• Lead by example and integrate Smart Grid technologies into federally-owned utilities and share best practices.

Smart Buildings

• Use incentives & mandates to increase energy efficiency of new and existing buildings.
• Introduce environmental requirements into certification processes.
• Lead by example to create demand in the market and identify and share best-practices.
• Encourage R&D in Smart Buildings, especially where industry is under-investing.

Smart Transportation

• Expand investment in smart infrastructure for roads and road-related equipment.
• Elevate the importance of ICT solutions in current government programs.

Travel Substitution

• Lead by example to help encourage behavioral change.
• Share best-practices and develop rigorous analysis to prove the case for Travel substitution.

Healthcare

One of the most important hurdles our country faces today is the rising cost of and access to health care. It is an essential task for policy makers to implement a plan to make health care more affordable and accessible.

Verizon has long been an advocate of national standards for an interoperable system of electronic health care records and remote monitoring tools to drive down costs and reduce medical errors for millions of Americans. A single, common set of medical history and data ensures all health care professionals have the latest and most accurate information about their patients, while ease of access to personal records means patients can follow care plans and interact with doctors before health issues grow more serious and more expensive to treat. Such IT-based records could save $165 billion annually in health care costs.

Broadband enables real-time, 24-hour remote monitoring by physicians and health care professionals that will mean greater access for patients in rural or underserved communities. Additionally, patients unable to travel can interact with health care providers and consult specialists in real time without having to leave home or travel long distances to a physician's office. One study (Litan 2005) estimates that greater access to broadband technologies would save $15 billion a year by 2020 in reduced usage of long-term care facilities by senior citizens.

Policymakers should implement electronic medical record standards and mandate that all government-supported or insured health care programs adhere to those standards. In addition, Verizon supports adjusting federal health care insurance reimbursement systems to encourage the use of electronic communications technologies, including remote telemedicine and monitoring systems. For additional information on Verizon's views, see the Healthcare Reform and the Adoption of Information Technology section.

Education

Addressing the challenges facing the U.S. educational system must be a priority because of their enormous impact on economic development, health, and quality of life. The issues range from the need to improve basic literacy skills, to shortages of scientists and engineers, and the need to teach the complex skills and contextual learning necessary for educational attainment and job success in the 21st century.

Verizon is affected directly by problems with education - as an employer, as a competitive corporation and as a corporate citizen. Like every employer in America, we need skilled workers. The literacy skills we require in our workforce grow more complex every day. Across America, we see an ever increasing need for a new literacy that goes far beyond reading and writing to broad competence in critical thinking and information communications literacy, which are requisites for this country to remain a leader in the world economy and for America to drive social and economic change.

These facts point to the educational challenges facing the country:

• More than 30 million American adults have basic or below average literacy skills.
• 31 percent of eighth graders and 34 percent of twelfth graders meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading "proficiency" for their grade level.
• In a typical high-poverty, urban school in America, approximately half of incoming ninth-grade students read at a sixth- or seventh-grade level.
• The average literacy skills of U.S. adults ages 16-65 are "mediocre" when compared to 19 other highly industrialized countries.
• Between 1996 and 2006, the average literacy level required for all American occupations rose by 14 percent.
• The U.S. Department of Education expects the literacy gap in America will produce a shortage of 12 million qualified workers in the next decade.

Broadband: coupled with the video communications, multi-media applications and Web 2.0 collaboration tools that are enabled by high-speed wireline and wireless connections - can help address education challenges in a number of ways:

• By enabling distance education, broadband extends the reach of education professionals and gives students access to specialized courses, individualized schedules, and online tutors, providing more comprehensive educational opportunities to students in both rural and urban settings.
• Broadband enables teachers to reach beyond their district or state to find new programs, methods and materials to introduce into their classroom.
• Online resources, like the pedagogic materials and Web 2.0 collaboration tools provided by Thinkfinity.org as part of the Verizon Foundation, help ease the strain of lesson-plan preparation and the demands of professional development.
• Innovations, such as using video game techniques to educate, extend learning beyond the classroom. Examples include enabling parents to participate in education at home and teaching occupational skills to workers in fields ranging from healthcare to airlines.
• Innovations with wireless broadband include applications like easy access to reading materials via wireless reading devices like the Kindle and the downloading of "learning applets" to cell phones, such as language lessons.

Another challenge for the U.S. education system is in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Scientists and engineers, in particular, are essential to innovation. The number of Americans obtaining graduate science and engineering degrees has not kept up with demand. Indeed, almost one half of Ph.D. graduates of U.S. engineering, computer science, physical science, and life science programs are now from other nations. In order for the U.S. to continue to be the global innovation leader, we should expand the number of STEM graduates in the United States.

Policymakers can assist by taking action on the following:

• Encourage more households to connect to broadband by funding development of compelling public-interest applications and delivering more government services online.
• Require teacher training in the use and development of online curriculum and set goals to "individualize" teaching for students that uses online strategies.
• Develop guidelines for the use of wireless devices in education, shifting the focus from cell phones as distractions to devices of opportunity.
• Build public support for making improvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) performance a national priority.
• Motivate U.S. students and adults to study and enter STEM careers.
• Upgrade k-12 math and science teaching.
• Reform visa and immigration policies to enable the U.S. to attract and retain the best and brightest STEM students and graduates.
• Boost and sustain funding for basic research, especially in the physical sciences and engineering.

Ensuring Broadband Deployment to All Americans

Just as innovation and investment created competition and consumer choice for wireless subscribers, it has likewise created competition and consumer choice for broadband. Not only do consumers benefit from widespread broadband deployment, but our economy and competitiveness is increasingly dependent on vibrant national broadband networks. Now is the time to ensure U.S. competitiveness by encouraging widespread broadband deployment. While broadband platforms alone cannot solve major social problems, they can and should be part of the solution.

How can public policy expedite broadband deployment? By enacting measures to stimulate broadband investment through "carrots," like tax incentives and a stable regulatory environment; to avoid the imposition of additional costs, such as new taxes or fees; to offer incentives for broadband deployment in rural or other under-served areas; and by using industry/non-profit partnerships like Connected Nation and One Economy to help realize the goal of widespread broadband deployment in every state. Policymakers should also establish policies to promote broadband demand, through policies that promote computer ownership and literacy.

Verizon will continue to deploy next-generation broadband networks. We are rolling out FiOS at a cost of over $23 billion in capital by the end of 2010. Verizon continues to invest in its backbone and wireless broadband networks. Our backbone network transmits data today at 40 gigabits per second, and we are preparing to deploy new 4G wireless technology starting in 2010. With these investments, Verizon is delivering data to more and more people and at speeds at or above any other services on the market.