Frost & Sullivan Acknowledges Verizon’s Competitive Strategies in the North American Wholesale SONET Services Market

May 23, 2006

Palo Alto, Calif. — Frost & Sullivan selected Verizon Partner Solutions – a unit of Verizon Communications – as the recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Leadership for its ability to grow revenues, achieve a successful merging of the wholesale entities of Verizon and the former MCI, and lead market share in the metro segment of the North American wholesale SONET services market.

Verizon Partner Solutions has been able to successfully grow its wholesale SONET revenues in a mature and saturated market. Revenue growth in wholesale SONET has been difficult to achieve due to the price competition that is only now beginning to stabilize.

“Overall, Verizon is now a leading provider of advanced global communications solutions and a Dow 30 company, says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Maria Zeppetella. ”It has annual consolidated operating revenues of approximately $90 billion across three business units – Verizon Business, Verizon Wireless, and Verizon Telecom"

The company’s global IP network spans more than 446,000 miles, 2,700 cities in 150 countries across six continents with an additional 187,000 miles of domestic network from Verizon Telecom. Verizon Wireless serves more than 51 million customers nationwide. Verizon Domestic Telecom provides service to over 48 million local access lines and a growing number of DSL and fiber-optic system (FiOS) broadband and video customers across the U.S.

Shortly after completion of the MCI merger in January 2006, Verizon combined its former Verizon Wholesale Markets entity with the U.S. portion of MCI Wholesale to create Verizon Partner Solutions. The separate sales and service teams of both of the former Verizon and MCI U.S. wholesale organizations have transitioned into a single integrated unit. Verizon Partner Solutions provides a complete single-source portfolio of best-of-breed products from the former MCI Wholesale and Verizon Wholesale Markets. The products include voice products, Internet, data – such as MPLS-based private IP, frame relay, ATM, IP VPN, private line, Ethernet and optical services, as well as billing, UNE, and database services.

Verizon Partner Solutions offers the following five wholesale service offerings in the metro for SONET: Dedicated SONET Ring (DSR); SONET point-to-point (IBT and Custom Connect); IntelliLight Entrance Facility (IEF); IntelliLight Shared Single Path (ISSP); and IntelliLight Shared Dual Path (ISDP).

“Today, Verizon Partner Solutions has over 3,000 customers throughout the U.S. and has about 8,400 sales and service employees in offices across the country,” explains Zeppetella. “This year, it will focus on offering customers advanced products and services based on three specific technologies - optical networking (including dedicated SONET rings); IP Technology; and Ethernet.”

Verizon led the metro segment of the North American Wholesale SONET Services market in 2005 with a 25.8 percent market share. It saw some of its strongest growth among wireless carriers as well as IXCs and CLECs.

It is for these reasons that Frost & Sullivan honored this company with the 2006 Award for Company Strategy Leadership.

“We’re delighted to receive this recognition from Frost and Sullivan,” says David Small, president Verizon Partner Solutions. “Having the right strategy in a very competitive marketplace is absolutely critical to our success; just as important, however, has been our ability to execute that strategy and provide our customers with the creative solutions that provide value. In addition, Verizon Partner Solutions has been implementing initiatives designed to continue to improve our service delivery. This Frost and Sullivan recognition is a testament to our commitment to help our customers well beyond the sale.”

Each year Frost & Sullivan presents this Award to a company whose competitive strategy has yielded significant gains in market share during the research period. Often, the recognized company has taken advantage of recent market changes that facilitate the introduction of never-before seen methods of capturing and solidifying market presence. Alternatively, the Award recipient may have executed an innovative strategy within the existing competitive landscape, empowering the company to overtake the competition.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company’s industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.awards.frost.com or www.ict.frost.com

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Stacie Jones

Frost & Sullivan

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