In this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations and Financial Condition, and elsewhere in this Annual Report, we have made forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our estimates and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include the information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations. Forward-looking statements also include those preceded or followed by the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “hopes” or similar expressions. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

The following important factors, along with those discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report, could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements:

• materially adverse changes in economic and industry conditions and labor matters, including workforce levels and labor negotiations, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact, in the markets served by us or by companies in which we have substantial investments;
• material changes in available technology;
• technology substitution;
• an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited ratings organizations;
• the final results of federal and state regulatory proceedings concerning our provision of retail and wholesale services and judicial review of those results;
• a significant change in the timing of, or the imposition of any government conditions to, the closing of our transaction with MCI, actual and contingent liabilities and the extent and timing of our ability to obtain revenue enhancements and cost savings following the transaction;
• the effects of competition in our markets;
• the timing, scope and financial impacts of our deployment of fiber-to-the-premises broadband technology;
• the ability of Verizon Wireless to continue to obtain sufficient spectrum resources; and
• changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings.