Verizon FiOS Internet Top Broadband Pick, Again

PC Magazine Survey of Readers Finds FiOS Is Preferred Internet Connection

NEW YORK - For the second year in a row, Verizon’s FiOS Internet service has been rated the best in PC Magazine’s reader survey of “The Best (and Worst)” ISPs in America.

Verizon High Speed Internet service also finished third in overall score on the list of the best DSL providers rated by the magazine’s readers.

The survey, conducted between April 7 and May 14, 2008, asked PC Magazine readers to rate their Internet service providers, including fiber-based service, DSL, cable and satellite. The readers were asked to evaluate their provider on 11 categories ranging from speed and reliability to initial setup and overall rating.

“Unsurprisingly, the favored method to connect is fiber-to-the-premises, as embodied by the Verizon FiOS service,” the magazine said in reporting its survey results. “The fast fiber hookup received an 8.6 for an overall score - the best rating of all the broadband options.”

Verizon’s FiOS Internet also collected the highest score among all ISPs for speed (9.0), reliability (8.7), initial setup (8.2), ISP-provided e-mail (8.0) and likelihood of choosing ISP (8.7). Verizon FiOS Internet was ranked No. 1 in the 2007 PC Magazine survey of Best and Worst ISPs.

“Finishing at the top of the chart among PC Magazine’s readers two years in a row is music to our ears,” said John Wimsatt, Verizon vice president for broadband marketing. "It reinforces something we’ve known for quite some time - FiOS is the best broadband service in America and the world.

“But we’re not about to rest on our laurels,” he added. “We will continue to expand the FiOS network, introducing to more consumers the fastest, most reliable Internet anywhere, and deliver improvements and new features for an already outstanding product.”

Since the 2007 PC Magazine “The Best (and Worst)” survey, Verizon has introduced its unmatched symmetrical FiOS Internet service with the fastest upload speed (20 Mbps) offered anywhere, coupled with an equally fast 20 Mbps downstream speed. Also, Verizon in June expanded its super-fast 50 Mbps downstream FiOS offering to consumers in 10 more states.*

Earlier this year, Verizon FiOS Internet also was named a winner in PC World Magazine’s “The 100 Best Products of 2008,” the second year in a row the broadband service made that list.

Only Verizon delivers ultra-high-speed broadband straight to customers’ homes over the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network. The network already reaches 10 million homes and business, and it will reach more than 18 million by 2010.

Verizon offers FiOS Internet to markets in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

In July, Verizon reported that more than 2 million consumers and businesses now use FiOS Internet as their connection to the Internet.

* NOTE: actual (throughput) speeds will vary based on factors including computer configuration and network/Internet congestion.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving nearly 69 million customers nationwide. Verizon’s Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 228,600 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.