Verizon Business Gives Customers in 19 Countries More Flexibility With Usage-Based Billing

READING, UK - Verizon Business, a premier provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large businesses and government, today announced that it is offering a new usage-based billing option to Verizon Internet Dedicated and Verizon Internet Colocation customers across 19 countries. The enhanced option, Burstable Select billing, is an alternative to Standard and Tiered billing and provides flexibility and cost control for customers who occasionally exceed normal usage on their access circuits.

This enhancement is immediately available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Burstable Select billing allows customers who occasionally exceed their normal usage, up to the maximum capacity of their access circuit, to benefit from a flexible billing mechanism for this peak traffic. A monthly billing fee is based upon the customers' selected bandwidth commitment for sustained utilisation, enabling them to optimise the service costs, with an incremental overage fee, per megabits per second, for the "bursting" usage above that commitment. The usage commitment, chosen by the customer, can be adjusted at the end of each month through a simple change process.

The solution benefits customers who occasionally transmit large files on top of their normal usage; who have varying traffic loads over the year; or who want to use new applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP).

"We needed a ubiquitous, reliable and always-on Internet access solution. People now expect access to be fast and available all the time, and we needed to balance this with the fact that as an expanding company we need to have a clear view of costs," said Greg Kennedy, EMEA IT manager of Salesforce.com. "Burstable Select billing allows us this, whilst giving us the flexibility to accommodate bursts of traffic. In addition, the flexibility of this service helps with budgeting since we can react instantly with increased bandwidth when we need the extra capacity, rather than go through the process of approvals for more bandwidth for what may be a temporary requirement."

Burstable Select billing customers can now choose their high-capacity bandwidth options from E3, DS3, STM-1 and STM-4 as well as Ethernet and Fast-Ethernet, with the full capacity of their selected access circuit being available at any time. The addition of Ethernet technology allows customers on-net/near-net or in colocation to benefit from the cost efficiency of an access method that also offers maximum scalability across a wide range of bandwidth options, without the need for CPE (customer premises equipment) change or high installation costs for new access tails.

"Internet access is now the de-facto business communication tool. Therefore, cost-effectiveness, flexibility and speed have become necessary aspects of Internet services," said Roberta Mackintosh, director international products for Verizon Business. "Verizon's new Burstable Select billing and Ethernet access options were created to specifically support those customers who require high-capacity Internet access and who want to enjoy the full capacity of the access circuit, whilst benefiting from being strategically billed according to their usage instead of their port speed."

Burstable Select billing customers additionally benefit from complementary detailed business-oriented usage reports through the Internet Global Utilisation Statistics (IGUS) application via the Verizon Business Customer Centre portal. This user-friendly online tool enables customers to drill down to information on specific data points, with statistics that are easy to interpret and compare, providing customised data reports and trend analysis, as well as capacity distribution and utilisation between sites. This information ensures that customers are maximizing their Internet access investment.

Verizon Internet Dedicated
Verizon's Internet Dedicated solution delivers a high-performance dedicated connection to the Internet for essential business applications as well as Web access and e-mail. Traffic is carried over Verizon's global IP backbone network - one of the most expansive and rigorously engineered networks in the world - ensuring the solution offers the highest level of Internet access and 100 percent network availability, backed by service level agreements (SLAs).

Verizon Internet Colocation
Verizon is one of the world's leading suppliers of colocation services. Verizon's Internet Colocation solution provides businesses with the ability to collocate their own or leased equipment within a Verizon data centre, which delivers high-speed Internet connectivity via Verizon's IP network. This gives businesses the required flexibility, management and dedicated infrastructure necessary to manage their operations and to compete in today's datacentric marketplace.

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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