Verizon to Make Network Changes Along
West Virginia-Maryland Border Area

Changes Will Align 4,400 Customers With State Service Areas:
Instructions Provided for Voice Mail and Calling Features

KEYSER, W.Va. ¿ Verizon will be making certain network changes to several of its communications exchanges, affecting about 4,400 customers in the border areas between Grant and Mineral counties in West Virginia and Allegany and Garrett counties in Maryland.  Verizon¿s investment in the project totals $15 million, and involves the engineering and construction of 39 miles of new fiber-optic lines.  

Customers in these areas will experience a brief service interruption as Verizon technicians make certain network changes, which will begin later this month.  In addition, customers who subscribe to Verizon¿s voice-mail service will receive new voice mailboxes and voice-mail access numbers.  Some customers also will need to reprogram certain service features, such as Verizon-provided Speed Dialing, Call Block and Priority Call.  

The company is making the changes to align these border-area customers with Verizon facilities in their specific states.  Once the changes are completed, West Virginia customers in the Short Gap, Ridgeley and Elk Garden exchanges who formerly were served from Verizon switching facilities in Maryland will be served from West Virginia facilties.

Similarly, Maryland customers in the McCoole and Westernport exchanges formerly served from Verizon switching facilities in West Virginia will be served from Maryland facilities.  

Verizon technicians will begin to make these changes during business hours on April 26, and the company expects to complete the project by late June.  Area codes, telephone numbers, billing and calling plans will not change.  

Verizon has begun mailing letters communicating the changes to affected customers.  The company will also place an automatic reminder call to customers approximately one week before the changes are being made in their specific area.  Verizon will follow up with an automated call to customers one to two days after the upgrade has been completed.

Instructions for Customers With Voice Mail or Other Calling Features

When the change takes place, the following services will be affected:

• Anonymous Call Rejection will be turned off.  Dial *71 and follow the prompts to turn the service back on.
• Call Forwarding will be turned off.  Dial *72 and follow the prompts to turn the service back on.
• Speed Dialing:  Your Speed Dialing list will be erased.  Before April 26, you may wish to review your speed dial list and write down its contents.  To reprogram our speed dial after the conversion, dial *74 (Speed Dial 8) or *75 (Speed Dial 30) and follow the prompts.  
• Call Block:  Your Call Block list will be erased.  Before April 26,  you may wish to dial *60 to review your list and write down its contents.  You will need to recreate your Call Block list after the change by dialing *60 and following the prompts.
• Select Call Forwarding:  Your Select Call Forwarding list will be erased.  Before April 26, you may wish to dial *63 to review your list and write down its contents.  You will need to recreate your Select Call Forwarding list after the change by dialing *63 and following the prompts.
• Home Voice Mail:  You will receive a new voice mailbox and voice-mail access number.   Your current greetings, options and passcode will be copied to your new mailbox, which will be reachable through the new voice-mail access number.  Messages received before the network change will not be moved; however, you will still be able to access those messages for 30 days after the change by calling your old voice-mail access number.  After 30 days, messages may be deleted from the old system.
  
  If you receive an audible or visual message-waiting indicator and you do not find new messages in your current mailbox, you will need to call your new voice-mail access number to retrieve messages.   Please see below to find your new access number:

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