* Donating 260 cell phones and 25 BroadbandAccess wireless cards to 16 government agencies throughout Southern California.
* Setting up banks of toll-free phones for evacuation shelters at the National Orange Show Fairgrounds, Building Gate No. 5, 590 Arrowhead Ave., San Bernardino.
* Deploying an emergency mobile communications command center at the shelter at the National Orange Show Fairgrounds. The calling command center should arrive later this week at the site, where evacuees and emergency response personnel will be able to make local and long-distance phone calls.
* Providing a high-capacity data line to the local government agencies operating at the National Orange Show Fairgrounds evacuation shelter.
* Offering free call-forwarding to Verizon landline customers who have been forced to leave their home or business because of the fires. (To set up the service, residential customers should call 1-800-483-1000; business customers should call 1-800-483-2000.)
* Installing one cellular repeater to enhance cell phone signal strength and capacity at the Irvine fire command center.
* Installing one Cell on Light Truck (COLT) at the Orange County command center and one at the Santa Clarita command center to increase cellular network capacity.
* Deploying employees equipped with 100 Verizon Wireless phones, 20 laptops and seven BroadbandAccess cards to Qualcomm Stadium, El Toro High School, the Orange Show Fairgrounds and Del Mar Racetrack relief centers to allow evacuees to make calls, check email and charge their wireless devices.
* Verizon Business has set up audio and net conference calls for state and local agencies and educational institutions. The calls will be used for emergency response, to coordinate firefighting strategy and disaster relief efforts, and conduct daily business during the crisis situation. Many of these conference calls have 100 connections or more and are kept as standing calls so emergency responders can dial in for updates throughout the day.

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http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2007/oct/oct23a_07.html

As for California victims, donated and hope they catch the arsonists that set the fires.

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Give VZW a break, and say thank you. They owe you nothing.

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Its not the thought that counts though. Token gestures are not the same as donations that will help.

And again people, these are not all rich people. Many of these fires are way out of towns, those are not rich people. You see the rich people that live in the hills outside of cities, that a small % of these people.

Plenty of middle class homes burned to the ground, should they get less help because a rich neighborhood 100 miles away also burned? I dont think so.

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Its the thought that counts, right?

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If “rich” people go through a disaster they SHOULD get less money, considering the fact that they’re RICH to begin with and lose property (which, I’m sure, most of them have insurance on considering the amount of wildfires they have)

But when you say “poor” people that lose everything and are stuck living in rinky dink shelters for months should get less money, I miss the logic behind that.

I personally applaud Verizon and other companies making donations to the cause.

People that HAVE more.. NEED less
People that HAVE less.. NEED more

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Wachovia Bank donated $1 million.
Walmart $1 Million
The Walt Disney Co. will donate $2 million, with $200,000 earmarked for the Red Cross and the balance going to volunteer centers and rebuilding efforts
Bank of America donated $500,000 to the Red Cross and $500,000 to local relief agencies
Wells Fargo will donate $250,000 to the Red Cross and another $250,000 to local relief agencies
Verizon donated $60,000 to the Red Cross, and is also providing evacuees with free calling services
Union Bank of California announced a disaster relief program that include loan payment deferrals, reduced rates on short-term equity loans and help recovering financial records. The bank also donated $200,000 to local relief agencies
Comerica Bank announced contributions of $50,000 to the Red Cross and another $50,000 to local relief agencies
Chevron Corp. donated $400,000 to the Red Cross, and $100,000 to local relief agencies, along with 20,000 bottles of water and 11,500 meals
Petco began a 10-day “round-up” program, in which customers can round up their purchases to the next highest dollar, with proceeds benefiting relief efforts. The company has also donated more than $200,000 in products to evacuation centers and animal welfare groups in San Diego County
The Blue Cross of California Foundation donated $50,000 to the Red Cross
The Pacific Life Foundation donated $500,000 to the Red Cross
Toys “R” Us donated $250,000 to Save the Children
Alcoa Foundation donated $50,000 to the Orange County chapter of the Red Cross
BP donated $250,000 to relief agencies, while Arco and am/pm stores plan to ship water, soda, snacks, health and personal aids to shelters and police and fire staging areas.
AT&T Foundation, it’s charitable arm donated $100,000.

I think both AT&T and Verizon need to step up their support.

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http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_calwildfires&s_subsrc=RCO_ProfilePage_Link&s_src=F7ZWGR00

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Jeff B. people who live in million dollar homes need cell phone service more than any one. Don’t you see with out cell phone service they would truly be homeless.

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Let’s see if the two companies that this site is so in love with come up with anything. At this point, I believe, nothing from AT&T or Apple.

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Ay, I’m with Ryan, some of you guys are selfish.

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A company donates $60,000 and people scream “exploiting disaster”, yet if they did nothing, you would not have criticized Verizon. Instead, thank Verizon and criticize AT&T, Sprint, etc…

$60,000 + free calling for affected people is a more than generous donation. Sure, the scope of the disaster might be many times greater than that but do you really expect Verizon to cover it all? If several large corporations each donated the “insulting” amount of $60,000, the disaster relief effort would be greatly mitigated.

Of all the people here who are criticizing Verizon, including Joshua, how many of you opened up your own pocket books and donated to the relief effort? Some people are so selfish.

THANK YOU VERIZON!!

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60k and free phones/service is better than nothing and its always a blessing to give to those in Need.

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Do you see any other major corporation stepping up to provide for these victims?

You should put your hate aside and applaud ANY help given to those poor people, 60K and equipment is alot more than 0K and none.

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