Remember the world before the Internet?

You may wonder how kids did their homework without it – or how you worked from home, or kept in touch with your grandchildren at college, or did your holiday shopping at the last minute.

High-speed access to the Internet is an ever more important part of modern life. To support this “all-broadband, all-the-time” lifestyle, Verizon has been transforming our wireless and wireline networks to deliver high-speed connectivity to more customers than ever before.

In 2003, we extended the reach of our high-speed DSL service and grew our customer base by almost 40 percent, to 2.3 million. SuperPages.com, our online directory product, helps consumers find what they need on the Internet and has seen a dramatic increase in user searches. For the large-business Enterprise market, we have expanded our advanced, high-speed data networking services over our national fiber-optic network. And at Verizon Wireless, we operate a nationwide data network and have launched the fastest commercial wide-area wireless data technology available today.

Now we’re about to take the next step to bring broadband to the mass market.

This year, Verizon will begin a widespread deployment of fiber-optic technology to homes and small businesses, delivering Internet, video, music and other content at speeds far greater than cable modems. We also will begin to deploy Internet switches and other next-generation technologies to enable our networks to handle voice, data and video simultaneously. And we will expand our wireless broadband network in major markets across the country, adding new capabilities for large business customers.

These next-generation networks will link to all kinds of devices – anywhere, anytime – and enable a whole new generation of services, from voice-over-the-Internet to video messaging to interactive learning, and more. We are committed to unleashing the full potential of broadband to the marketplace – inspiring innovative new products and improving the quality of life for our customers at home and at work.