READING, England, January 10 /PRNewswire/ --

- Assessment Based on Completeness of Vision, Ability to Execute

Leading industry analyst firm Gartner Inc. has positioned Verizon Business in the Leaders quadrant among European network services providers in its new report, "Magic Quadrant for Pan-European Network Service Providers, 2007."(1)

The latest Gartner Magic Quadrant examines network service providers that "generate at least 100 million euro in enterprise network services revenue contracted in Europe (not merely revenue for delivery in Europe under contract from non-European sources)." To qualify, providers had to "offer voice, data, managed network and value-added services to enterprise customers across multiple geographies in Europe."

According to Gartner, providers positioned in the Leaders quadrant "have a full portfolio of voice and data services, including relatively new offerings in areas such as application-aware networking, WAN optimization and hosted communications applications. These services will be delivered with good quality across a wide area of coverage at competitive prices by account teams that are typically closer to the customer. Leaders have a strong vision of the market and their role in it, and they will typically be able to address a wider range of customers (in terms of size, geography and service requirements) with their service offerings than others in this Magic Quadrant."

Nancy Gofus, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Business, said: "Our position in the Leaders quadrant reflects our commitment to the European market, including the ongoing expansion of our network-based, global solutions portfolio. In the past year we expanded our European access capabilities, as well as our managed services and solutions portfolio, including new offerings for security and application management. We are continuing to expand our capabilities to deliver unsurpassed global solutions to our multinational customers wherever they do business in the world."

Verizon Business was also recognized by Gartner in the Leaders quadrant for "Global Network Service Providers in 2007."(2)

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrants are copyrighted 2007 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, express 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 leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large-business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced communications, security and other professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

1 Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for Pan-European Network Service Providers, 2007", December 5, 2007, authors - Neil Rickard, Scott Morrison. Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00153140 2 Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers, 2007", August 8, 2007; Authors Neil Rickard, Eric Paulak; ID Number: G00150113. Web site: http://www.verizon.com http://www.verizonbusiness.com

Clare Ward of Verizon Business, +44-118-905-3501, clare.ward@verizonbusiness.com , Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/618232.html