Verizon details 2013 100-Gbps deployments

Verizon (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) says it has deployed 100-Gbps capabilities based on coherent transmission on more than 4800 miles of its IP network in the U.S. and Europe during the first half of 2013. All but about 350 miles of that total was deployed on U.S. fiber-optic networks.

The U.S. Tier 1 carrier rolled out 100G on several new routes in the U.S. during the first six months of the year. These new routes – which included Seattle to Salt Lake City, Indianapolis to St. Louis, St. Louis to Memphis, Charlotte to Nashville, and Cleveland to Detroit – brought the total number of miles of 100G in the U.S. to 21,400. Verizon expects to add 100G to another 8700 miles in the U.S. by the end of the year.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Verizon rolled out 100-Gbps technology on a 350-mile run between Brussels and Frankfurt. The carrier says it now has 100G on 5100 miles of optical network in Europe, and plans to increase that total by another 1400 miles during the rest of 2013.

As in its previous 100-Gbps deployments, Verizon has used Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform (see "Verizon to deploy 100 Gbps on three U.S. routes") and Juniper PTX packet transport routers (see "Verizon to deploy Juniper Networks PTX Series in US and Europe") in this year’s 100G expansion efforts.

“Not only does Verizon have one of the largest global networks, we have one of the most robust and sophisticated networks with 100G technology deployed on multiple routes in the U.S. and Europe,” said Kyle Malady, senior vice president of global network operations and engineering. “As long as our bandwidth demand grows, we’ll continue deploying high bit-rate technology that underlies the superior experience that our business and consumer customers expect.”

Verizon’s 100G deployment efforts won’t stop this December. “We’re already looking at growth on our network in other geographic regions and expect to begin new regional deployments next year,” Malady said.

Meanwhile, Verizon has already begun to experiment with higher speeds. The company recently announced successful completion of a 200-Gbps field trial with Ciena (see “Verizon tests 200-Gbps in the field”). In a recent podcast with Lightwave, Glenn Wellbrock, director of optical transport networks at Verizon, hinted that 200-Gbps is in the carrier’s deployment plans.

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.