Verizon received high marks from its customers to secure the spot as top wholesale VoIP provider, reflected in research by ATLANTIC-ACM, a leading telecommunications research consultancy and benchmarking firm. The company earned the top ranking in the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier category of the Best in Class Wholesale Metro products. The announcement was made Monday (Oct. 8) at the CompTel PLUS Fall 2007 Convention and EXPO in Grapevine, where ATLANTIC-ACM announced its 2007 Global Wholesale Carrier Excellence Awards.

The awards, presented by Dr. Judy Reed Smith, CEO of ATLANTIC-ACM, were based on results from the 2007 edition of the ATLANTIC-ACM Metro Report Card and reflected input from more than 850 individual customers on the performance of wholesale providers in such areas as product quality, price, quality of service and ease of doing business.

"Verizon more than doubled their '06 metro score for wholesale VoIP," said Fedor Smith, vice president for ATLANTIC-ACM. "It is great to see a major carrier receiving high scores for their contribution to this relatively new and rapidly expanding product segment."

Verizon announced its VoIP product suite in August 2005 with the accelerated introduction of its Carrier IP Termination product and SIP Gateway Service. A month later, Verizon added the SIP-based Carrier IP Termination product. The company continued to enhance its VoIP products over the next two years, adding such features as eBonding and Web-based capabilities, directory assistance, operator services, Foreign Telephone Number Assignment, robust fraud detection and seasonal pricing.

"Verizon launched this product suite two years ago in response to wholesale customer demand," said Mike Yancey, director of wholesale voice product management for Verizon. "We're pleased by our No. 1 ranking, which confirms our efforts are successful in meeting the customers' needs. We'll continue to look for ways to improve these award-winning VoIP products."

Wholesale products are sold by Verizon Partner Solutions and Verizon Business International Partner Solutions.