Verizon Business First to Set New Standard for Managed Network Performance in Latin America

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Addressing the growing globalization of its customer base and the importance of reliable network infrastructure as a foundation of business success, Verizon Business has extended to Latin America the company's industry-leading service level agreements (SLAs) for managed wide area networks (WANs). Verizon Business is now the first global communications provider to offer customers with locations in Latin American, European and Asia-Pacific business centers an unparalleled set of SLAs for availability, notification and restoration.

The SLA enhancements, addressing actual time to repair and network availability, are now available to managed network services customers based in the United States and with business operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Verizon Business network availability SLA commitments are backed by financial credits of up to 100 percent of monthly recurring charges.*

"The pace of globalization is accelerating, and many of our U.S.-based customers are locating manufacturing and R&D facilities around the globe, including Latin America," said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Verizon Business. "Reliable networks are the lifeblood of these global customers, enabling revenue generation and the ability to centralize business-critical applications to better serve end-user customers. This is huge for our global customers because these newly enhanced managed network commitments mean they can operate their businesses knowing that their networks are backed by industry-leading SLAs."

Verizon Business customers with operations in Latin America now can benefit from:

• An actual time to repair SLA of four hours for Verizon Business and third-party networks.
• A network availability SLA of 99.5 percent for customers without network backup.

In addition, Verizon Business is maintaining its current network availability SLAs for networks with dual router-dual circuit architecture (100 percent) and networks with single router back-up (99.95 percent), as well as 15-minute proactive outage notification.

"It is a positive development when global service providers recognize the need to offer enhanced SLAs to historically underserved markets," said Eric Goodness, research vice president at Gartner, Inc. "At a time when more and more businesses are letting service providers manage and operate their networks and communications infrastructure, it is important to have a globally uniform set of SLA commitments."

The industry's leading service level agreements now available in nine Latin American countries are also offered in the following 21 European and Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

A world-class technical and professional services staff, currently numbering approximately 6,500, helps Verizon Business deliver these enhanced SLAs. In addition, the company's IMPACT network management system, which is fully automated and integrates a rapid fault-isolation infrastructure, helps improve the performance of customer networks and enables speedy fault isolation to help reduce the impact of network issues.

Verizon Business manages more than 3,600 customer networks in 142 countries, overseeing more than 25,000 non-Verizon connections from more than 60 network providers around the world. Verizon Business' industry-leading service-level commitments and award-winning IMPACT management platform underscore a legacy of service and innovation. The company is the recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Customer Service Leadership Award for Managed Services and has also been listed by Gartner Inc. in the leaders quadrant of a report titled "Magic Quadrant for U.S. Managed and Professional Network Service Providers, 1H06ⁱ."

* Managed WAN SLA terms and conditions apply.

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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ⁱ Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for U.S. Managed and Professional Network Service Providers, 1H06" by E. Goodness, D. Neil and D. Willis. July 11, 2006