Small and Medium-Sized Business Options Are Focus of Verizon Global Wholesale Offers

NEW YORK, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when small and medium-sized businesses look for every technological advantage to help them continue as the fundamental economic growth engine in the U.S., Verizon is providing support with three new voice-over-IP and Internet packages available through the Verizon Global Wholesale division.

The offers are designed to respond to the rapid growth of voice-over-IP (VoIP) in the small and medium business realm and the resulting demand for powerful high-speed Internet connections. In addition, the offers support Verizon Global Wholesale customers' marketing efforts to small and medium sized businesses.

"By creating new VoIP and Internet packages that include both services and hardware, we're giving our wholesale customers new ways to support their small- and medium-sized business customers in a time when every nickel and every efficiency counts toward success," said Quintin Lew, senior vice president of marketing for Verizon Global Wholesale. "Our goal continues to be to arm our wholesale customers with the tools that help them to help small and medium-sized businesses succeed."

(For more information about the benefits Verizon Global Wholesale offers its wholesale customers who support the small and medium business market, click here (http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/media/index.xml?urlid=130677).)

NEC IP PBX and SIP Gateway Solution

The first new package combines Verizon's SIP (session initiation protocol) Gateway Service with associated router hardware. SIP Gateway Service transports VoIP traffic between packet-based IP networks and the traditional telephone network, allowing Verizon Global Wholesale's customers to give small and medium-sized businesses a quick and easy way to get into the VoIP world.

In addition to providing access to Verizon's expansive IP local network and its telephone number inventory, wholesale customers can offer small and medium-sized businesses a new NEC UNIVERGE SV8100 IP PBX and its associated installation and maintenance bundle at a discount, simplifying the setup and lowering the cost of entry into the IP market. This enables small and medium-sized businesses to work with a single vendor, receive one bill, and gain access to a feature-rich VoIP solution that delivers cost reductions and the promise of increased productivity.

Both the SIP connection and the NEC UNIVERGE SV8100 PBX are priced at a discount with this new simple, feature-rich package. The service and hardware discounts expire on June 30.

Internet Dedicated T1 Package

The second new package, Internet Dedicated T1, also combines discounted service and hardware. It provides a high-capacity connection for 30 or more users and is designed for transmitting high-volume e-mail traffic, transferring large files, or hosting Web sites from virtually anywhere.

The package, based on T1 technology, combines 24 channels of broadband signal into a 1.544 megabit per second (Mbps) service, with customer equipment available to enable the service. Quality of service (QoS) assurance is offered as an option, at an additional cost. QoS is important for businesses that consolidate voice, video and key business applications onto a converged IP network.

The equipment offered in this package is either a Samsung Ubigate iBG 1000 for data-only applications or a model 1003 for data and voice services combined.  The discounts on service and equipment expire on March 31, 2011.

For small and medium-sized businesses with a larger appetite for Internet access, a third new promotional offer features Internet access with an Ethernet connection at either 5 Mbps or 10 Mbps.  This Internet Dedicated Ethernet service is discounted and bundled with a Samsung iBG1000 router, the cost of which is credited back over the initial year of service.

Targeted at businesses that intend to consolidate voice, video and key business applications onto a converged IP network, this offer delivers a single-vendor solution that end-user customers can leverage to fit their business model. The Ethernet service discount and the monthly credit offer for the cost of the router are scheduled to expire on March 31, 2011.

"Small businesses need their carriers to go beyond a one-size-fits-all solution," Lew said. "These Internet offers cover the key speeds and features that growing small and medium-sized enterprises require to solve modern connection issues and engage the world in new and aggressive ways."

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 91 million customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of approximately 222,900 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $107 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.  

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SOURCE Verizon