Verizon Business Enhances Wholesale SIP Gateway Product with New Elements

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon Business, a premier provider of advanced global communications and information technology (IT), is offering new enhancements to its Wholesale Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Gateway VoIP product, giving wholesale customers the added capabilities needed to improve their competitive performance. SIP is a standards-based signaling protocol for initiating interactive communications, including voice.

Wholesale customers can now take advantage of metered outbound local calling, and directory assistance or operator services, or both, to further satisfy the needs of their customers. Each of these enhancements provides wholesale customers the option of customizing their product solutions.

"Verizon Business continues to innovate and advance its VoIP solutions for wholesale customers," said Nancy Gofus, vice president of product marketing for Verizon Business. "These latest key features, combined with the proven performance of our IP network, give our wholesale customers the added edge they need to do business in the growing VoIP market."

Metered outbound local calling provides customers with more pricing flexibility. This metered capability is available in an initial billing time of six seconds followed by subsequent six-second billing increments, and the feature can be used to recognize and manage subscriber usage patterns more efficiently.

Further, wholesale customers can advance and customize their own product suites with the directory assistance and operator service features now available with the wholesale SIP Gateway product. Wholesale customers will be provided local, long-distance and international operator and directory assistance service round-the-clock from geographically dispersed and fully redundant call centers.

Directory assistance and operator services are offered by both automated and live operators, with 23 languages offered on the automated platform. Verizon Business' directory assistance service uses an extensive database of telephone number information that is updated daily and includes more than 160 million business, government, and residential numbers.

Verizon Business' wholesale IP communications product suite, launched in August, 2005, offers various configurations of SIP Gateway Service and Carrier IP Termination products. Verizon Business' SIP Gateway Service is available in three configurations: Inbound Complete, Two-Way Local and Two-Way Complete.

With all configurations, Verizon Business provides the media gateway to the public switched telephone network, local number portability, E-911 (for outbound configurations), directory listing and Web-based order submission. Carrier IP Termination, using either the time division multiplex or SIP interfaces, provides wholesale customers with the ability to hand off traffic using the transport method that best suits their needs.

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.

####