NCAA Basketball Champion Maryland Terps Honored on 1.7 Million Verizon SuperPages Directory Covers

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Fans of the University of Maryland men's basketball team have something new to cheer about - Verizon SuperPages is honoring the team's first NCAA championship with commemorative 2002-2003 white and yellow pages covers. Lonnie Baxter and Juan Dixon, players from the 2001-2002 championship team, appear on the yellow pages cover. Coach Gary Williams, the NCAA trophy and the Maryland Terrapins' new home court grace the white pages cover.

More than 1.7 million white and yellow SuperPages directories are being distributed to residents and businesses in the northern and southern editions of the Montgomery and Prince George's counties publications. The yellow pages cover depicts Baxter performing a one-handed slam-dunk and Dixon setting up one of his famous jump shots. The white pages cover portrays a proud Coach Williams holding the NCAA championship trophy over an artist's rendering of the new Comcast Center.

"Verizon has been serving the Suburban Maryland area for more than 100 years, and we are proud to honor the winning University of Maryland basketball team by featuring them on more than a million directories," said Pat Marshall, group vice president - marketing, Verizon SuperPages.

For the first time, the 2002-2003 Verizon SuperPages telephone directories feature an innovative Dining Your Way Restaurant Guide. This comprehensive guide includes an A-Z reference to restaurants in the DC Metro area. It also provides maps to make it easier for readers to discover new restaurants and coupons as an added incentive for trying new restaurants at discounted prices.

In addition to finding local listings in the northern and southern editions of the Montgomery and Prince George's county SuperPages, area residents can log onto Verizon SuperPages.com (www.superpages.com), the Internet's leading online directory and shopping resource, for millions of local and national business listings.

Verizon Information Services and SuperPages.com

Verizon Information Services is the world's leading print and online directory publisher, a content provider for communications products and services, and the largest publisher of Hispanic directories in the U.S. With operations in 14 countries and annual revenues of more than $4.3 billion, Verizon Information Services publishes more than 1,200 U.S. Verizon SuperPages directories and nearly 400 international directories with a total circulation of approximately 150 million copies worldwide.

Based in the Dallas area, Verizon Information Services produces and markets SuperPages.com, the Internet's #1 online directory and shopping resource. SuperPages.com receives as many as 14 million visits and 9 million unique visitors a month and powers directory services on MSN, InfoSpace, AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, BigFoot, Tripod and Angelfire as well as more than 2,500 affiliate Web sites.

The company supports computer literacy with philanthropic programs and through the Enlighten Me and Internet Learning Tutor sites on SuperPages.com. Enlighten Me is a fun site where children and their caregivers go to read, learn and explore. The Internet Learning Tutor is specifically designed for adults who are just learning their way around the Internet.

Verizon Information Services is a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Through its signature Verizon Reads program and the Verizon Literacy Network, Verizon is leading the fight to increase U.S. literacy levels by creating community and corporate awareness, raising funds, encouraging collaboration among literacy providers and engaging employees in supporting literacy programs.