Verizon Subsidiary BBN Technologies Earns Federal Awards for Diversity of Suppliers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- BBN Technologies, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, has received two awards from the federal Defense Contract

Management Command (DCM) in Boston for its use of minority-owned suppliers.

The awards are given annually to organizations that meet or exceed their goals for placing work with small, minority-owned businesses, also known as

disadvantaged businesses.

"BBN has made a commitment to seeking out all suppliers who can provide us with competitive, high quality products, supplies and contract

services," said Ed Campbell, BBN vice president. "BBN's support of diversity in all aspects of our business, including whom we use for our

suppliers, has been key to our success."

One award recognized that BBN more than doubled the 5 percent goal of outsourced work to small disadvantaged businesses in 2000, which represents a

significant increase from outsourcing only 1.6 percent of all contracts in 1988. BBN received the second award for exceeding the 5 percent goal in using

diverse suppliers for three years running.

Some of BBN's small disadvantaged suppliers include: Mill City Connections, a Lowell, Mass., computer systems firm; New England Office Supply,

headquartered in Braintree, Mass.; and G.A. Blanco & Sons Inc., a general office and computer supply company located in Great Barrington, Mass.

DCM-Boston is part of the federal Eastern Defense Contract Management District, which manages over 200,000 contracts valued at more than $400 billion for

the U.S. Department of Defense, other federal agencies and foreign governments. Services include contract administration, production surveillance, engineering

services, quality assurance, small business and contractor compliance, and oversight of over 10,000 contractors throughout the eastern United States, including

BBN Technologies.

Captain Joel Biliouris, SC, USN, the commander at DCM-Boston, and Philip R. Varney, the assistant director of Small Business at DCM-Boston, recently

presented the two awards to Campbell recently.

BBN Technologies, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, 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, which established the @ sign as an icon for the digital age, BBN Technologies provides the same technical expertise and innovation to both government

and commercial customers today. These areas of expertise include: system integration; distributed, collaborative applications; speech recognition; wireless and

satellite networking; network architecture and management; information security; structural acoustics; sensor signal processing; and real-time, multi-processor

systems. With more than 750 employees in 11 offices across the country, BBN Technologies had revenues in 2000 of approximately $118 million. For more

information on BBN Technologies, go to www.bbn.com.

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 112 million access line equivalents and 27 million wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest

directory publisher in the world. A Fortune 10 company with approximately 260,000 employees and more than $65 billion in annual revenues, Verizon's global

presence extends to 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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