Verizon Business Expands Global Solutions, Professional Services to Help Drive Business Growth

Verizon Business continued during the third quarter to deploy new building blocks for its integrated global solutions while growing its professional consulting capabilities and expanding its offerings in key international markets.

Highlights of the quarter included a new set of managed mobility offerings, next-generation managed security services, expanded cloud computing capabilities and a series of global network enhancements. These moves expanded the company's reach and further strengthened its leading portfolio of integrated and secure IT and communications solutions for globally extended enterprises.

"Despite continued economic headwinds, Verizon Business moved decisively during the quarter to expand and deepen its global solutions offerings," said Kerry Bailey, Verizon chief marketing officer-business. "With signs pointing toward increased economic stability, we're confident that no provider is better positioned to serve the extended enterprise as technology investment begins to accelerate."

Focus on Key Solutions Areas

Verizon Business provides integrated global solutions and professional consulting services in four key areas: communications, IT, information security and networking.

New communications solutions capabilities introduced during the quarter included:

    --  A new suite of Managed Mobility Solutions designed to help companies
        meet the increasing demand for information delivered over mobile devices
        such as smartphones and cell phones, while avoiding the complexity of
        managing these devices.  The offering helps enterprises manage multiple
        mobile devices, usage plans and applications across multiple carriers
        around the globe.

    --  Consulting services to support the deployment and ongoing support of
        enterprisewide mobility programs.  These professional services will
        better equip organizations to, among other things, control expenses
        associated with multiple mobile devices and usage plans across several
        carriers, while maintaining security over the IT environment.

    --  Expanding the company's unified communications and collaboration (UC&C)
        portfolio, adding management of applications including presence, contact
        center and messaging to its Cisco Unified Communications System Release
        7.0 portfolio.

    --  Rolling out the company's award-winning Burstable Enterprise Shared
        Trunks (BEST) feature to Europe, enabling customers there to enhance the
        efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IP networks by allowing
        capacity to be allocated on demand to support business needs across
        customers' VoIP locations.

    --  Offering speech services in an IP-enabled version to meet the needs of
        the growing number of businesses that are converting their networks to
        an Internet protocol infrastructure.  The new capability enables
        customers to run their speech services on the company's Hosted IP
        Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform, as an alternative or in
        addition to its traditional Hosted IVR platform.

    --  Providing its small- to medium-sized-business (SMB) customers more
        online tools by enabling them to take advantage of the big-business
        capabilities inherent in the Verizon Enterprise Center (VEC) customer
        portal and enabling all customers to interact more efficiently with the
        company through an expanded set of automated customer-care capabilities.

New IT solutions capabilities included:

    --  Extending availability of Verizon Business' comprehensive on-demand,
        "cloud-based" Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution to the company's
        Amsterdam data center.  The new capability in Europe reinforces the
        company's strategy of expanding cloud-computing deployment resources
        around the globe to meet the stringent security and performance
        requirements of business customers.

    --  Expanding its Remote IP Application Management service to India,
        enabling customers headquartered there and local subsidiaries of
        multinational companies to improve the performance of their online
        applications while controlling operational expenditure.

New security solutions capabilities included:

    --  Offering the company's next-generation global managed security services
        (MSS) platform, complete with new options for service, to better help
        large and mid-sized businesses protect their vital assets from cyber
        threats and other online attacks.

    --  Introducing, through its independent ICSA Labs division, new vendor
        certification and enterprise assessment programs designed to help
        enterprises safeguard against intrusions through network-connected
        devices such as printers, faxes and point-of-sale systems.

    --  Expanding its already broad portfolio of business continuity
        professional services to address gaps commonly found in existing
        continuity programs.   The new consulting services focus on business
        applications, regulatory compliance, training and awareness, and
        testing.

    --  Introducing a comprehensive new Application Security Program, which
        takes a risk-based approach to protecting the critical data contained
        within applications such as databases and software.  The program helps
        large-business customers better understand and identify the potential
        security threats to their applications, and take steps to protect them.

    --  Unveiling two new capabilities designed to help safeguard the growing
        exchange of electronic patient data between hospitals, clinics,
        physicians, insurers and patients.  The first capability is a new
        Verizon Security Management Program-Healthcare (SMP-H) offering that
        enables health care organizations to proactively assess the strength of
        security measures and practices.  The second is a suite of IT consulting
        services that help health care providers design and implement safe
        security practices for sharing information and storing data.

New networking solutions capabilities included:

    --  Extending the company's Managed Services portfolio to India, enabling
        customers headquartered there and local subsidiaries of multinational
        companies to benefit from the company's extensive experience and
        expertise in proactive network monitoring and management.  Services now
        available there include Managed Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area
        Network (WAN), Network Management Reporting - Visual and Wireless LAN
        services.

    --  Offering SMB customers a cost-effective managed router solution that
        gives them the secure Verizon Internet access they need coupled with 24
        x 7 proactive router monitoring and management.  The Verizon Managed
        Router Solution enables SMB customers - many of which do not have
        trained IT resources on staff - to take advantage of leading Internet
        access technology that is backed and supported by Verizon Business
        networking experts.

Network Leadership and Global Expansion

Verizon Business has invested more than $3 billion since 2006 in its leading global network. Network developments during the quarter included:

    --  Deploying 10 new converged packet access switches in five new sites -
        Buenos Aires, Argentina; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Makati, Philippines;
        Calgary, Canada; and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five additional sites
        received diverse nodes, which brings the total number of CPA switches to
        128 across 111 sites in 30 countries.
    --  Completing preparation for installation of the Europe India Gateway
        (EIG) submarine cable system equipment at Verizon Business' terminal
        station in Marseille, France. This station will support the company's
        primary access to the EIG cable system in that region. The EIG is
        scheduled to be in service in 2010.
    --  Installing 28 Private IP edge routers for a total of 733 edge routers in
        209 sites across 59 countries. New cities include San Diego; Cologne,
        France; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Karachi, Pakistan.

    --  The company expanded its International Mesh Network by additional nodes
        in Basingstoke and Reading, England. The new equipment connects the
        Verizon Business network to two Atlantic submarine cables and will
        provide connectivity to the new Europe India Gateway when completed in
        2010. The team also added seven new U.S. domestic network mesh sites.

Verizon Business Industry Recognition

Industry experts continued to recognize the depth and breadth of Verizon Business' global capabilities during the quarter. This recognition included:

    --  Analyst firm Gartner Inc. positioned Verizon Business in the Leaders
        Quadrant of its report, "Magic Quadrant for U.S. Telecommunications
        Service Providers,"(1) which addressed both wireline and wireless voice
        and data services.

    --  J.D. Power and Associates, which earlier this year gave Verizon Business
        a leading ranking for customer satisfaction among large-enterprise data
        service customers, ranked Verizon Business highest in overall customer
        satisfaction among large-enterprise voice services providers.

    --  The Metro Ethernet Forum awarded Verizon Business its 2009 European
        Carrier Ethernet Service Provider of the Year Award for Service
        Innovation. Verizon Business won on the strength of the company's
        industry-leading Ethernet portfolio, its robust European geographic
        coverage and innovative service offers.

    --  PHONE+ magazine named Verizon's sales partner program a Top 50 Channel
        Program.

    --  Speech Technology magazine honored Verizon Business with a Star
        Performers Award for its Open Hosted Speech Services (OHSS), citing
        Verizon Business' excellence in innovation and execution.

    --  Cisco recognized Verizon Business' continued success as a channel
        partner with a 2008 U.S. Managed UC&C Partner of the Year Award, along
        with four other top honors for services sold in the U.S. and Canada.
        Additionally, Cisco named Verizon Business as the 2008 Service Provider
        Partner of the Year for the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands and
        Luxembourg); gave the company's French operations Cisco's Customer
        Satisfaction Excellence award; and recognized Verizon Business as the
        first U.S.-based communications solutions provider to attain status as a
        Data Center Unified Computing Authorized Technology Provider.

(1) Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for U.S. Telecommunications Service Providers," September 23, 2009, Authors Phillip Redman, Ted Chamberlin, Michael J. King, Robert F. Mason; ID Number: G00170394.

New Business Momentum Continues

Despite a challenging global economic environment, Verizon Business continued to expand relationships with existing large-business and government agency customers while adding new business. The company completed agreements during the quarter with multinational corporations, major regional players and government agencies for a wide range of advanced communications and IT solutions.

Specific customer applications included:

    --  Delivering managed WAN services to ING, enabling the global financial
        institution to focus on its core business.  Under the terms of the
        contract extension, Verizon Business will provide these services to more
        than 4,000 ING corporate and retail sites in Belgium and the Netherlands
        as well as more than 200 international locations.

    --  Designing, deploying and managing for Manulife Financial an advanced
        IP-based global network.  Under a five-year agreement, Verizon Business
        will consolidate and standardize Manulife Financial's discrete regional
        networks in 15 countries and territories in the U.S., Canada and the
        Asia-Pacific region to provide Manulife Financial's more than 20,000
        employees with access to corporate information and resources required to
        support the financial protection and wealth management requirements of
        its millions of customers.

    --  Providing NYSE Euronext with staging, configuration and testing for key
        components of its U.S. Data Center infrastructure.  NYSE Euronext is a
        leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative
        trading technologies.

    --  Consolidating the communications infrastructure for Sandvik, a global
        high-tech engineering group with more than 50,000 employees around the
        world and representation in 130 countries. The company selected Verizon
        Business as its preferred global communications provider and has seen
        major business benefits. Under the new contract, Sandvik's global
        network will be transferred to Verizon Business and fully managed on a
        24 x 7 basis, enabling Sandvik to achieve a lower total cost of
        ownership and concentrate on expanding into new markets.

Verizon also signed new contracts with several U.S. government agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction. The company's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone ratings, and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrants are copyrighted 2009 by Gartner Inc. and are reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the Leaders quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Verizon Business

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world's most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions. We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees -- enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment. Many of the world's largest businesses and governments -- including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions -- rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

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SOURCE Verizon Business

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