Verizon Business Receives 2006 Frost & Sullivan Customer Service Leadership Award for Managed Services

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Business is the 2006 recipient of Frost & Sullivan's Customer Service Leadership Award within the North American managed services market.

Verizon Business received the award based on its leading customer-centric service and support, expansive global portfolio of managed network and information technology solutions, Rapid Fault Isolation and Restoration process, and personalized care via its global team of more than 6,500 technicians and network engineers.

"In addition to offering a range of local area network, wide area network, telephony and professional management services, Verizon Business has made significant improvements to its managed services customer service metrics," said Imran Khan, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "This provides the company with a strong degree of differentiation in enterprise network monitoring and management activities. Verizon Business' automated fault-management system has enabled it to reduce fault isolation and fault correction time, thereby giving it a major lift over rival managed services operators' network management services."

Frost & Sullivan noted in the report that "Verizon Business has effectively integrated its MCI acquisition to expand and enhance its managed services product portfolio to include a variety of telecom and information technology services and has also continued to make significant improvements to its managed services customer service metrics over the past several months." MCI won the same Frost & Sullivan Award in 2005.

According to the report, an increasing number of large businesses are showing a greater inclination toward using managed services due to several factors, including: increasing movement toward network convergence, greater focus on core business, the need to reduce operating costs, and geographic expansion of business operations.

The Frost & Sullivan report also cited the Verizon Business Integrated Management Platform for Advanced Communications Technologies (IMPACT) for enabling Verizon Business to offer some of the best service level agreements (SLAs) for its managed services. The automated IMPACT technology reduces human error and establishes the groundwork for industry-leading SLAs and rapid responsiveness to customer needs. The "development and deployment of effective remote network monitoring and management systems remains a key success factor within the managed telecom services market, and Verizon Business has continued to excel in this area over the past couple of years through continued improvements to its customer support processes," the report said.

With continued investment in its IMPACT platform and other rapid fault isolation and restoration capabilities, Verizon Business is able to offer a 3.5-hour time to repair (TTR) service commitment on select Verizon Business networks with full management and maintenance service options.

In addition, Frost & Sullivan noted, Verizon Business' services are further enhanced with E-Bonding, which makes it easier for customers to order, manage and pay for needed services via a direct interface with the Verizon Business service portal.

"These are key customer-support differentiators for Verizon Business' Managed Network Solutions," said Jim DeMerlis, vice president, managed services, Verizon Business. "As a global managed services leader, Verizon Business will continue to invest in seamless service delivery and customer support."

Verizon Business today manages more than 3,500 customer networks across 142 countries, including more than 25,000 third-party circuits across 60 global carriers. With a comprehensive portfolio of global enterprise solutions - delivering support for everything from the server, to the network, all the way down to the desktop and beyond with mobile computing devices - Verizon Business offers customers both bundled and a la carte service options for improving and managing business-critical applications and information technology infrastructures.

About Frost & Sullivan Best Practices
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.frost.com.

About Verizon Business
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.

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