Virgin Mobile’s Lifeline Assistance plan provides a free E911-compliant handset to eligible consumers and 200 minutes of airtime per month at no charge.  Voice mail, caller ID, and call waiting are also included.  Additional minutes can be purchased through prepaid cards wherever Virgin Mobile products and services are sold for $0.10 per minute and $0.15 per text.  Unused minutes will not carry over to the next month.

“Lifeline Assistance offered through prepaid wireless phones is helping many more low-income Floridians obtain phone service,” said PSC Chairman Nancy Argenziano.  “Virgin Mobile’s affordable Lifeline plan will allow even more eligible residents to stay connected.”

The Lifeline Assistance program helps low-income Floridians receive and keep essential telephone service by providing a discount to qualified consumers.  Residents who participate in certain public assistance programs or have a qualifying income level are eligible to receive a $13.50 monthly telephone bill discount – more than $160 per year – under the program.  More than 618,000 Floridians currently participate in the Lifeline program.

Customers can apply for Lifeline Assistance through the Florida Department of Children and Families’ automated application process, the PSC’s Lifeline Assistance web page at www.floridapsc.com/utilities/telecomm/lifeline/, or by contacting a service provider.

The PSC is committed to making sure that Florida’s consumers receive their electric, natural gas, telephone, water, and wastewater services in a safe, affordable, and reliable manner. The PSC exercises regulatory authority over utilities in the areas of rate base/economic regulation; competitive market oversight; and monitoring of safety, reliability, and service.

For additional information, visit www.floridapsc.com.

Customers
Former Alltel customers in Florida already have been added to the Verizon Wireless Mobile to Mobile Calling family, and may now call any of the company’s more than 87 million customers without using plan minutes. Other customer benefits include:

•Service on the nation’s most reliable voice and data network, supported by a team of real-life test men and women driving the local roads to test network performance.
•Faster speeds when accessing the Internet, email and corporate data on the Verizon Wireless EV-DO Rev.A network.
•Best-in-class devices including the BlackBerry® Storm™, Tour TM and other global smartphones and many more devices.
•High-value services, such as Friends and Family® (formerly My Circle), and other services like Push-To-Talk, V CAST and V CAST Music with Rhapsody.
“We’re excited to welcome all these new customers, communities and stores into the Verizon Wireless circle of friends and family,” said Pam Tope, Florida region president for Verizon Wireless. “When they see that Verizon Wireless logo on their phone or on the storefront, these customers can feel confident they’re getting the most reliable and best service in the business.”

Retail stores and branding
Across the state, 21 former Alltel retail store locations now display Verizon Wireless signs, products and materials for customers. Advertising and promotions in these markets also have been converted to the Verizon Wireless brand.

Full remodeling work on the retail stores is ongoing – featuring Verizon Wireless “Evolution” design elements, including large demo bars, technical support counters, electronic greeter kiosks and more — to streamline and enhance the overall customer experience.

These renovations and enhancements are expected to be complete at all stores by the end of this year.

Network
Network conversion is another major aspect of the Alltel to Verizon Wireless merger. More than 700 former Alltel cell sites and several large switching facilities across Florida are being upgraded and reconfigured to work as part of the larger and more advanced Verizon Wireless network. The high-speed Verizon Wireless EV-DO Rev A network is the nation’s largest, most reliable wireless 3G broadband network.

The massive, multi-million dollar Alltel-to-Verizon Wireless network conversion is expected to be completed throughout the state by 2011 This work is part of the company’s ongoing investment to keep improving and strengthening coverage and services for all Florida customers. Verizon Wireless has spent nearly $2 billion on network enhancements throughout the state since 2000 when the company was formed.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and data network, serving 87.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with more than 87,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

“Floridians have more choices than ever in the competitive communications market,” said PSC Chairman Matthew M. Carter II.  “Variety in the voice services market means consumers can shop for the best deal to meet their budget and their needs.”

The annual PSC report, delivered to the Florida Legislature on July 30, compiled data from over 300 Florida telecommunications companies for a 12-month period ending December 31, 2008.

The report reveals that consumer options for voice communications continue to expand, and wireless and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol services continue to gain in popularity.  While most households still subscribe to traditional wireline service, intermodal competition for voice communications services is delivering greater flexibility and more choices for Florida consumers.

The full report can be found on the PSC Web site at http://www.floridapsc.com/publications/reports.aspx#tele.

“Consumers deserve to get their money back when a company misrepresents something as free that isn’t,” said Attorney General McCollum. “I commend Verizon Wireless for providing full restitution to their Florida customers and changing the business model to better protect consumers nationwide.”

Cell phone content includes ringtones, music, wallpaper, horoscopes and other material that is often promoted by online marketers as “free,” but ultimately ends up costing up to $19.99 a month. The charges appear on a subscriber’s monthly wireless bill and are usually recurring. The bill charges often appear under the following indiscernible names: “OpenMarket,” “M-Qube” and “M-Blox.”

A large number of complaints related to the mobile content industry led to an investigation which revealed that thousands of Florida consumers had received these charges on their cell phone bills for mobile content downloads that they neither knowingly authorized nor desired. Prior to the investigation, Verizon offered its customers the ability to block third-party mobile content and to implement parental controls free of charge. The investigation and subsequent settlement have been negotiated by the Attorney General’s CyberFraud Section.

Verizon Wireless has agreed to first-of- their-kind standards for advertising on websites, prohibiting the use of the word “free” without clear disclosure of the actual price and requiring all content providers and advertisers to clearly and conspicuously disclose the true cost of cell phone content. These compliance standards, which include website design restrictions for online advertisers, will ensure consumers see and understand the terms and conditions of the purchase. Verizon Wireless will enforce these new standards through its contracts with all content providers and advertisers nationwide. Alltel will also be required to adopt these “best practices” under the company’s acquisition by Verizon Wireless.

As part of the settlement, the company will pay a total of $1.5 million, with $1 million for Verizon Wireless and $500,000 for Alltel, to reimburse the state for the costs of its investigation and to help the Attorney General’s Office fund the efforts of the task force as it continues to press for similar reform across the industry. The agreement was negotiated with full cooperation for Verizon Wireless LLC.

The Attorney General’s Office has already obtained several settlements with players from each part of the industry, including marketers, billing aggregators, content providers and wireless service providers. Verizon Wireless is the second wireless provider to set up these standards and offer consumer refunds; AT&T Mobility reached an agreement in February 2008. A copy of the AVC is available online at http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/KGRG-7TAJQ2/$file/VerizonAVC.pdf.