To Make A Long–but Really Great–Story Short...

From the day in March of 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell's famous "Mr. Watson, come here!" was first heard over the device that would become the first telephone telecommunications field has been on the march.

Verizon sprang from a series of mergers starting with that of Bell Atlantic, a "Baby Bell" company, and NYNEX, another of the original seven Baby Bells that began operations in 1984.

The Bell Atlantic-NYNEX wireless partnership marked the beginnings of the current-day Verizon Wireless.

Then, in July 1998, Bell Atlantic merged with GTE, each company having evolved and grown through years of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Each had proven track records in successfully integrating business operations.

In the meantime, on Sept. 21, 1999, Bell Atlantic and London-based Vodafone AirTouch Plc (now Vodafone Group Plc) announced that they had agreed to create a new wireless business–with a national footprint, a single brand and a common digital technology–composed of Bell Atlantic's and Vodafone's U.S. wireless assets (Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, PrimeCo Personal Communications and AirTouch Paging).

Bell Atlantic and Vodafone announced an agreement to merge their wireless company with a national footprint, a single brand and a common digital technology. "Verizon Wireless" was introduced in April 2000.

Verizon Communications Inc., based in New York City and incorporated in Delaware, was formed on June 30, 2000, with the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. Verizon began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the VZ symbol on Monday, July 3, 2000.

The symbol was selected because it uses the two letters of the Verizon logo that graphically portray speed, while also echoing the genesis of the company name: veritas, the Latin word connoting certainty and reliability, and horizon, signifying forward-looking and visionary.

Verizon Communications was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2004. Verizon continues to have a nationwide presence in wireline and wireless markets, with more than 100 million Americans connecting to a Verizon network daily. With the addition of MCI, Inc., in 2006, Verizon is now also a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology solutions to large business and government customers worldwide.

As of year-end 2007, Verizon’s wireline network included more than 41 million wireline access lines and 8.2 million broadband connections nationwide. Over 1.2 billion phone calls and trillions of bits of data were being carried over this nationwide network on an average business day, with a reliability factor of more than 99.99 percent. Verizon’s wireline network also included approximately 13 million miles of local, intercity and long-distance fiber-optic systems--more than enough to circle the Earth 520 times.

Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless owned and operated the nation’s most reliable wireless network. By year-end 2007, Verizon Wireless served nearly 66 million customers in 49 of the top 50 U.S. markets. Verizon’s wireless network is 100 percent digital, with more than 175 switching facilities nationwide.

In 2006 and 2007, Verizon invested a total of $34.6 billion to maintain, upgrade and expand its technology infrastructure. Verizon’s strong cash flow from operating activities ($26.3 billion in 2007) has enabled the company to invest in growth areas--particularly broadband and wireless--even as the company has reduced total debt significantly through the decade and maintained a healthy dividend.

In 2004, Verizon began major initiatives to bring next-generation broadband services (wireless EV-DO and fiber-optic-based FiOS services) to wireless and wireline customers in the United States. By year-end 2007, an enhanced version of EV-DO (Rev. A) was available to more than 240 million Americans. For wireline customers, Verizon is the only major U.S. telecommunications company building an advanced, all-digital fiber-optic network, on a mass scale, all the way to customers’ homes. From 2004 through 2010, the company plans to invest $22.9 billion--or $18 billion net of copper network investment costs that would otherwise have been made--to deploy Verizon’s fiber-optic network past approximately 18 million premises and attract up to 7 million FiOS Internet customers and more than 4 million FiOS TV customers.

In 2006, Verizon spun off its directory business to Idearc, which now owns what were the Verizon domestic print and Internet yellow-pages directories publishing operations.

Verizon Communications Inc. generated $93.5 billion in 2007 total consolidated operating revenues, and at year-end 2007 the company had nearly 235,000 employees, serving customers in more than 140 countries. Verizon currently operates two network-based business units: Verizon Wireless, operator of America’s most reliable wireless network; Wireline, including Verizon Telecom, which is deploying the most advanced wireline broadband and video network in America today; and Verizon Business, which includes many former MCI operations and serves medium and large businesses and government customers. Verizon’s corporate headquarters is located at 140 West St. in Manhattan, and it has a major operations hub, the Verizon Center, at the former headquarters location of AT&T in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.