ALLTEL to Buy All Verizon Local Telephone Properties in Kentucky for $1.907 Billion

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications has agreed to sell all of its 101 local telephone exchanges and approximately 596,000 telephone lines in Kentucky to ALLTEL, based in Little Rock, Ark., for $1.907 billion.

Following the closing of the transaction, approximately 950 Verizon employees in Kentucky will work for ALLTEL. However, employees working in Verizon's LiveSource operator service center in Lexington will remain with Verizon. Additionally, employees and services provided by Verizon's long-distance, Internet, wireless and directory publishing groups in Kentucky will not be affected by the sale.

"Verizon and ALLTEL have reached an agreement that complements our respective strategies and provides for the fair and equitable treatment of the affected Verizon employees in Kentucky," said Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., Verizon vice chairman and president. "This deal will allow Verizon to continue to sharpen our focus on competing in targeted markets and growing our company. And it allows us to direct our resources to states where we have greater critical mass in both operations support and clustered markets."

The sale must be approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. The companies expect to close the sale and transfer of Verizon's assets in Kentucky to ALLTEL during the second half of 2002.

To download maps of the affected areas click here:
Kentucky
To view maps of the affected areas click here:
Kentucky

Today's announcement of the Kentucky transaction follows last week's announcement that CenturyTel has agreed to buy Verizon's wireline operations in Alabama and Missouri - including 188 exchanges and approximately 675,000 telephone lines in the two states - for approximately $2.159 billion. When the transactions in the three states are completed, Verizon will have sold approximately 1.275 million access lines for approximately $4.068 billion. The company expects net proceeds from these transactions to be approximately $2.8 billion.

Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 128.5 million access line equivalents and 28.7 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. A Fortune 10 company with 256,000 employees and approximately $65 billion in annual revenues, Verizon's global presence extends to more than 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

ALLTEL

ALLTEL (NYSE:AT), with more than 10 million communications customers and more than $7.5 billion in revenues, is a leader in the communications and information services industries. ALLTEL has communications customers in 24 states and provides information services to telecommunications, financial and mortgage clients in 55 countries and territories. For more information about ALLTEL, visit www.alltel.com.

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