IRVING, Texas -- Verizon launched FiOS TV today in seven more North Texas communities, bringing to 14 the number of Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs where consumers can obtain the new competitive service that represents an alternative to existing cable and satellite services.

Effective immediately, Verizon local telephone customers in Colleyville, Grapevine, Murphy, Sachse, Southlake, Westlake and Wylie now have a new choice for television.

Verizon began offering FiOS TV in Keller last September. Last month, the company expanded the service to Carrollton, Coppell, Flower Mound, Fort Worth, Irving and Lewisville. Customer sales in those markets are brisk.

Verizon also recently began offering FiOS TV in Herndon, Va., and surrounding parts of Fairfax County, Va., and Temple Terrace, Fla.

FiOS TV and FiOS Internet Service are transmitted over the company's industry-leading, 100-percent fiber-optic network.

Acting under a new Texas law that granted Verizon a state-issued video franchise in October, Verizon will continue its rollout of FiOS TV in the rest of the company's previously announced FiOS TV markets in the Dallas/Fort Worth area by expanding the service to 11 more communities later this year, in addition to those announced today and previously. The communities are: Allen, Denton, Double Oak, Garland, Hebron, Highland Village, Lucas, Parker, Plano, Rowlett and St. Paul.

By the end of 2006, as Verizon continues building out its fiber-optic network that already spans more than 17 million feet in North Texas, FiOS TV will be available to nearly 400,000 North Texas households, or 33 percent of Verizon's landline customers in Texas, with over 1 million potential viewers.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ)