Verizon Launches Campaign to Encourage More Residential Phone Customers to Switch to Online Billing

NEW YORK, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new initiative to encourage thousands more customers to switch to environmentally friendly online billing, Verizon has launched the Great Paper Escape sweepstakes.  Featured is a grand prize of $10,000 to a Verizon customer who switches to paperless billing by Dec. 31, 2010.

The goal is to motivate about a quarter of a million Verizon customers to join the nearly 2.4 million customers who already receive their monthly bills online.  The sweepstakes is but one front in an ongoing Verizon campaign to reduce the environmental impact of the company's business operations around the world.

"Earlier this year Verizon launched a comprehensive sustainability program to help our company and our customers reduce their impact on the environment and to conserve energy," said James Gowen, Verizon chief sustainability officer. "Through the Great Paper Escape sweepstakes we're offering customers an easy and fun way to reduce their carbon footprints while also providing a faster, more secure and clutter-free way to pay their bills."

Consumers who make the switch to receive and pay their bills online by Dec. 31 will be entered to win a grand prize of $10,000.  Customers who sign up to just receive their bills online (paperless billing) will earn an entry in the grand prize drawing -- and a second entry if they enroll in a Verizon automatic payment plan. Verizon customers already enrolled in paperless billing and auto pay also will receive sweepstakes entries.

In addition to the grand-prize sweepstakes entries, customers signing up for paperless billing will have an opportunity to play the daily instant-win game and be eligible to win prizes ranging from reusable and environmentally friendly tote bags to an energy-efficient washer-dryer combo.  Other daily prizes will include $50 Verizon Perks gift cards and a Trek Eco Urban bicycle.  Existing paperless-billing customers also are eligible for the daily instant-win game.

In 2009, more than 27 million Verizon paper bills were replaced by online bills, and this June alone, Verizon customers made more than 8 million electronic bill payments.

Starting this week, customers can enter the Great Paper Escape sweepstakes and instant win game by either visiting http://greatpaperescape.verizon.com or by logging in to their Verizon account at http://myverizon.com and enrolling in paper-free billing and an automatic bill payment service.  

By going paper-free, customers can obtain instant online account status and receive reminder payment notices about their amount owed and due date; download and print their bill; and track the last 12 months of their bills for record-keeping purposes.  When paying via Verizon's automatic pay service, all transactions are processed on a secure server.

Verizon has long been committed to reducing the environmental impact of its operations and is helping its customers do the same.  Since 2001, Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program has collected more than 7 million no-longer-used wireless phones and kept more than 200 tons of batteries and electronic waste out of landfills.  

In April, Verizon launched a comprehensive sustainability program to find practical and innovative ways to reduce the carbon footprint of its global operations. The initiatives range from significantly increasing the number of alternative energy vehicles in the company's fleet to conducting trials of energy-efficient FiOS-TV set-top boxes to using more green products and services.

In addition, Verizon is the first telecommunications company to establish its own energy-efficiency standards for telecom equipment, requiring vendors to manufacture equipment that is 20 percent more efficient.

For more information about Verizon's environmental initiatives, visit http://newscenter.verizon.com/kit/green-press-kit/.   

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 92 million customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $107 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.  

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SOURCE Verizon