BBN Technologies Wins U.S. Small Business Administration Award of Distinction

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - BBN Technologies, a Verizon company, has earned the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Award of Distinction for the company's commitment to working with small and minority-owned businesses.

At a recent ceremony held at BBN headquarters here, SBA New England Regional Administrator Jeffrey H. Butland presented the award to BBN President Tad Elmer.

"Access to government contracts by small businesses is one of President Bush's priorities and a key part of his small business agenda," Butland said. "It is rewarding to work with a company like BBN that places a high priority on helping small businesses succeed and thrive."

Elmer expressed BBN's commitment to working with small and minority-owned business, saying, "Working with small businesses is the right thing to do, and it's good business; we get excellent responsiveness and service from our small business subcontractors."

The SBA Award of Distinction was initiated in 1985 to recognize federal contractors that have exceptional small business subcontracting programs. The SBA's commercial market representatives review companies to ensure compliance with subcontracting laws and regulations and rate each company, from unsatisfactory to outstanding. Only companies rated outstanding can be nominated for the Award of Distinction.

Prior to the presentation, Janette Fasano, SBA area director for government contracting, noted, "Less than two percent of the SBA's portfolio of 2,500 large federal contractors have earned this award."

In a letter notifying BBN Technologies of the award, Linda G. Williams, associate administrator for government contracting at SBA, commended BBN's Small Business Liaison Officer, John Forcucci, saying: "He shows exceptionally strong support of the company's small business program and plays a significant role in promoting opportunities for small business at your company. His efforts have produced significant results."

BBN Technologies is often recognized for its commitment to helping small and minority-owned businesses develop opportunities to participate in government contracts. In 2001, BBN earned two awards from the federal Defense Contract Management (DCM) Command in Boston for its use of minority-owned suppliers. The DCM award is given to organizations that meet or exceed their goals for placing work with small, minority-owned businesses. BBN Technologies has also been recognized by NASA for small business advocacy in the Northeast.

BBN Technologies

BBN Technologies, a Verizon Communications company, was established as Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. in 1948. From its roots as an acoustical design consulting firm, to the implementation and operation of the ARPANET--the forerunner of today's Internet--to the development of the first network email, BBN Technologies has grown to provide technical expertise and innovation to government and commercial customers. Areas of expertise include: system integration; distributed, collaborative applications; speech recognition; language understanding; wireless and satellite networking; network architecture and management; information security; structural acoustics; sensor signal processing; and real-time, multi-processor systems. For more information on BBN Technologies, visit www.bbn.com.

Verizon Communications

A Fortune 10 company, Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 136.6 million access line equivalents and 33.3 million Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon is the third-largest long-distance carrier for U.S. consumers, with 13.2 million long-distance lines, and the company is also the largest directory publisher in the world, as measured by directory titles and circulation. With approximately $67 billion in annual revenues and 227,000 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

####