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

Reading, England (ots/PRNewswire) -

- Enhanced Option Offers Higher Access Capability, Speed and Cost
Efficiency

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.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive
speeches and biographies, media contacts, high quality video and
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Web site: http://www.verizonbusiness.com

ots Originaltext: Verizon Business
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