13 October 2003, San Jose, CA Lightwave -- Cisco Systems, Inc. announced contracts with Verizon Communications Inc. and China Netcom for its Cisco 12000 Series Router. Verizon will use the platform in its national IP VPN network, while China Netcom will use Cisco 12000 and 7000 Series Routers for its IP/MPLS backbone and service network.

The Cisco 12000 Series Router will be part of Verizon's expanded network to deliver Layer 3 IP/MPLS VPNs to Verizon's enterprise customers. The platform will be deployed as Verizon's Local Access Transport Area (LATA) core router as well as one of the service edge router platforms for Verizon's Enterprise Advance initiative.

Verizon's Enterprise Advance initiative, launched by the company last November, expands Verizon's services in the enterprise market by connecting existing regional networks across the country via an IP backbone while enhancing core capabilities. These capabilities include packet, optical and transparent LAN services as well as IP services such as VoIP and IP VPNs.

In China, China Netcom is building and offering value-added IP services nationwide, including metro Ethernet and VPN services. The carrier currently provides Internet service to over 17.8 million users and data transmission service to 228,000 business customers. China Netcom began a nationwide IP infrastructure and services build out in January 2003. First to be constructed is the IP backbone and service aggregation network to support advanced IP service delivery.

China Netcom is deploying the Cisco 12016 Router in the backbone layer, Cisco 12016 and Cisco 12008 Routers in the aggregation layer, and Cisco7200 and Cisco 7304 Routers at the network edge.