Verizon Business optical network reaches halfway point

JUNE 12, 2007 -- Verizon Business (search for Verizon Business) says it will add 6,000 more miles to its ultra long haul (ULH) network this year, surpassing the halfway point in the company's multiyear plan to deploy a 50,000-mile all-optical transport network across the United States.

In announcing the deployment plan today, Verizon Business said more than 15 new ULH routes connecting dozens of cities will be added. The routes include: Chicago to Sioux Falls, S.D., to Minneapolis to Omaha, NE; San Jose to Los Angeles; Memphis, TN to Longview, TX, to Dallas; Atlanta to New Orleans; Denver to Colorado Springs to Albuquerque, NM, to El Paso, TX; and Atlanta to Fairfax, SC, to Raleigh, NC, to Greensboro, NC.

"Verizon Business is on track to realize our vision -- and deliver on our promise -- of one dynamic, robust ULH network with optimal diversity and maximum bandwidth," said Fred Briggs, Verizon Business executive vice president of operations and technology. "By adding 6,000 more miles, we're aggressively moving toward the 60 percent completion mark of the ULH network."

The ULH network supports integrated optical transport and enables photonic switching of wavelengths for network restoration and shorter customer provisioning intervals. Verizon Business says the ULH strategy also allows it to extend signal reach beyond 1,200 miles without regeneration equipment, reducing operational expenses as well as the number of active components in the network. The use of ULH allows large-business and government customer traffic on the ULH network to receive a higher level of resiliency, better network performance, reduced latency, and increased network availability, with measurements up to 99.999 percent.

"As more of our customers move to wavelength services, Web-based applications and high-speed Ethernet products, they look to Verizon Business to deliver all the network benefits of our ultra long haul network," said Briggs. "Reliability and resiliency of our ULH network are two key deliverables our customers demand. In today's environment, our customers need network connectivity 24 hours a day, and we will continue to make these types of network infrastructure investments to ensure we meet their communication needs around the world."

The Verizon Business ULH network supports an OC-768 core capacity (currently the fastest SONET standard rate for data transmission on optical fiber), with transmission speeds up to 40 Gbits/sec for robust performance of IP, MPLS, SONET, and SDH services. With the ability to support a mixture of 10 and 40-Gbit/sec signals on a single fiber, Verizon Business believes its ULH network provides superior and more cost-effective capacity and wavelength capabilities.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications, provides communications and IT services to large business and government customers worldwide.

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