Verizon Business Sets New Industry Standards for VoIP

Guarantees High Voice Quality for Managed IP PBX Users; Delivers Industry’s Best Time-to-Repair Guarantee

March 15, 2006, BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Business, a premier provider of advanced global communications and information technology (IT) solutions, announced today it is now providing industry-leading service-level commitments for its Managed IP PBX Services. These services enable the delivery of high-quality voice traffic over Internet protocol (VoIP), a technology that is now reaching a critical mass among business customers.

The new service-level agreements (SLAs) feature a commitment that Managed IP PBX issues will be resolved in three and a half hours or less. By comparison, other telecommunications companies typically offer a time-to-repair commitment based on an average time, not an actual time-to-repair.

Verizon Business is also measuring the quality of its Managed IP PBX services using a new set of measurements specifically designed for voice services. Until now, these measurements have been more relevant to data services.

Additionally, Verizon Business is extending a number of other robust service-level commitments to its Managed IP PBX customers, including up to 100 percent platform availability and proactive notification of an issue within 15 minutes or less. The SLAs also consist of a credit payout of up to 100 percent of the monthly recurring charge for missed metrics averaged over a month.

“We are committed to delivering best-in-class services,” said Ed McGuinness, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of Verizon Business. “Our industry-setting performance standards embody our customer-first approach to doing business. We believe in delivering the very best service, products and network to our customers and our new service- level commitments underscore the importance of this.”

Verizon Business’ industry-leading service commitments are made possible through its advanced network management capabilities, including its Rapid Fault Isolation platform, award-winning IMPACT fault management architecture and 6,500-employee global technical support team.

According to industry experts, more and more companies are adopting VoIP to reap new benefits derived through improved productivity. VoIP also allows customers to reduce management complexity by converging voice and data over a single network, increasing efficiency; lowering costs, and simplifying and standardizing customers’ telephone equipment.

Making Performance Count in a VoIP World

By implementing and managing IP PBX hardware and software, Verizon Business is helping customers make a smooth transition to VoIP. Customers can rely on Verizon Business to manage and support their voice communications systems, including the network, security, applications and phones, to high levels of reliability, performance and restoration. With managed services, customers can better focus on their core strengths so they can quickly adapt and respond to changing business conditions.

In delivering the new service-level commitments, Verizon Business is using a qualitative measure known as Mean Opinion Score (MOS) that looks at the end-user’s voice-quality experience. The Verizon Business SLA guarantees an average MOS score up to 4.0, a highly desirable score for IP Telephony networks. Users can compare this to other IP Telephony providers that typically do not offer voice quality service-level commitments based on MOS scores.

With Managed IP PBX, customers also can view near real-time performance of their managed networks through the Verizon Business customer portal, where they have access to a wealth of analytical data. As a result, Verizon Business can help customers better identify and remedy performance problems, enabling them to avoid expensive productivity and customer losses caused by poor performance.

Managed IP PBX is part of a complete family of award-winning Verizon Business VoIP solutions targeted to large-business and government customers. Verizon Business works with customers to provide the right solution to flexibly meet their VoIP needs at their own pace and path.

Managed Network Services Deliver Strong Value to Customers

Today, Verizon Business manages 3,400 customer networks in 142 countries, including overseeing more than 25,000 non-Verizon connections from more than 60 network providers around the world. Verizon Business has a legacy of service and innovation in network management. As the former MCI, it received the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Customer Service Leadership Award and the 2005 InfoWorld 100 Award.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

Contact Information

Janet Brumfield

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Verizon Business

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