Verizon Offers New Jersey Residents Chances to Win Trips to the Essence Music Festival, the ’Party of the Year’ in New Orleans

NEWARK, N.J. - Verizon Thursday (June 7) launched a new Web-based interactive contest inviting visitors to share a photo capturing their own goodwill Party of the Year event that helped others. The winner of the grand prize will be awarded a trip to New Orleans to attend the Essence Music festival in July, courtesy of Verizon. The contest can be found at www.discoverfios.com/essence. See official rules online.

Verizon is a major sponsor of the Essence Music Festival and is offering the opportunity to New Jersey groups, individuals and organizations to enter the contest by submitting a photo from their own party, whether it is a bake sale, car wash or large-scale fundraising event. To enter, contestants must upload their picture at www.discoverfios.com/essence and submit a short description of the purpose for the party. Visitors to the site will vote on the most impressive event.

The photo with the most votes wins the grand prize. It consists of round-trip airfare to New Orleans and lodging for two; tickets to the Essence Music Festival; and the opportunity to present on behalf of Verizon a contribution to Essence Cares, whose goal is to encourage adults to mentor at-risk youngsters.

Andrea Custis, vice president of New Jersey sales and marketing for Verizon, said, “We love sponsoring interactive contests that engage our customers with fun concepts that highlight their community and/or charity involvement. With the power and speed of Verizon FiOS Internet, our customers will have an edge when they forward the link to their family and friends asking them to vote for their photo.”

The Essence Music Festival, to be held on July 5-7, bills itself as a party with a purpose. It hosts not only concerts, but workshops that address issues facing the African-American community. Scheduled to appear are such star musicians as Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Ludacris, Chris Brown, Ciara, Steve Harvey, Robin Thicke, the OJays and many more. For more information on the 2007 Essence Music Festival, visit www.essence.com.

In addition to the online contest, contestants can also enter a random drawing for a chance to win a trip to the Essence Music Festival. Entry forms are available at the Verizon FiOS kiosk at the Rockaway Town Square Mall, 301 Mt. Hope Ave., Rockaway, N.J.

Verizon’s FiOS network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers’ homes and businesses, ensuring that customers are able to realize the full suite of next-generation services that only fiber can deliver.

Verizon offers FiOS Internet at speeds of up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second), capable of downloading a 1.2 gigabit, or 90-minute, standard-definition movie in about three minutes.

In New Jersey, FiOS TV is available in nearly 200 communities in Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties. For more information on Verizon FiOS, visit www.verizon.com/fios, or call 1-877-4-FIOS-TV (1-877-434-6788), or visit the FiOS kiosk at the Rockaway Mall to experience FiOS.

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 60.7 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 has a diverse workforce of more than 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.