Verizon Business' Hosted IP Centrex Solution Earns Top Honors

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- Verizon Business' Hosted IP Centrex solution is the winner of a 2006 INTERNET TELEPHONY Excellence Award. The award, from Technology Marketing Corp.'s INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, honors IP communications solutions that deliver innovation to customers.

"This award reinforces our position as a market leader in this burgeoning growth area of the telecommunications market," said Tom Roche, vice president of marketing for network voice and data services for Verizon Business. "Verizon Business' converged VoIP network allows customers to streamline voice, data and Internet connections over one network, making it an ideal solution for companies in today's global economy."

Verizon Business' Hosted IP Centrex offers customers flexibility, efficiency and affordability in an IP environment. In addition, Hosted IP Centrex delivers seamless and real-time telephony services and business continuity capabilities. Hosted IP Centrex also offers all of the features of a PBX or key system without the associated capital, lease or maintenance costs. All PBX functionality resides within the Verizon Business network, eliminating the need for PBX infrastructure investments.

In addition, this converged access, coupled with the dynamic bandwidth allocation feature, provides the capability to accommodate high-traffic periods - without the expense associated with excess capacity during non-peak times - making it an ideal solution for seasonal, dynamic operations.

For example, by leveraging the dynamic bandwidth allocation capability, a sales and operations center can easily increase bandwidth to accommodate high volumes of customer service calls during peak periods.

"Verizon Business' Hosted IP Centrex delivers winning solutions to meet their customers' needs," said Richard Tehrani, editor-in-chief of INTERNET TELEPHONY.

Verizon Business' portfolio of VoIP services includes five product offerings: IP Flexible T1, IP Integrated Access, IP Trunking, Hosted IP Centrex and Managed IP PBX. These services leverage a robust, flexible platform that provides a high-quality voice experience, vast national and international footprint and rich feature set, all of which afford customers a smooth transition to VoIP at their own path and pace with great flexibility. It also allows customers to utilize their existing infrastructure, enabling them to mix and match solutions, whether network or premises-based.

Verizon Business is a recognized leader delivering advanced communications and information technology (IT) services for large-business customers around the world. In April, the company was awarded the 2006 "Highest Customer Satisfaction With Large Enterprise Data Service Providers" by J.D. Power and Associates in its annual study of small, mid-size and large-business customers.

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.

About TMC®
Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) publishes four print publications: Customer Interaction Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY, SIP Magazine and IMS Magazine. TMCnet, TMC's Web site, is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. Ranked in the top 2,100 sites in the world by alexa.com*, TMCnet serves more than one million unique visitors each month. TMC is also the first publisher to test new products in its own on-site laboratories, TMC Labs. In addition, TMC produces INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO, The VoIP Developer Conference, VoIP Demo, IMS Expo and Call Center 2.0 Conference. TMCnet.com publishes more than 15 topical online newsletters. For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com. (*alexa.com is an amazon.com company that ranks Web sites by their traffic levels. Neither alexa.com nor amazon.com is affiliated with TMCnet.)

J.D. Power and Associates Disclaimer: Verizon Business received the highest numerical score among data service providers in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Data Services StudySM. Study is based on 3.138 total responses measuring 6 providers and measures opinions of consumers utilizing telecom services at small/midsize and large enterprise U.S. businesses. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in January 2006. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com/cc.

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