Verizon Business expands, transforms global network serving business and government

Verizon Business expanded and improved what was already one of the world's few truly global networks - resulting in enhanced speed, availability, diversity and resiliency for business and government customers worldwide.

The investments were part of the approximately $17 billion Verizon Communications planned to spend this year building, operating and integrating one of the most advanced, reliable and broadband-capable wireless and wireline networks in the world.

"Our reputation of achieving some of the highest standards of network performance is strengthened each year through the shrewd strategies and innovative technologies we successfully implement," said Fred Briggs, executive vice-president, network operations and technology, for Verizon Business. "The Verizon global network is the foundation for offering solutions that help organisations better achieve their missions. Our global customers know they can depend on us to serve their needs by delivering reliability, scalability, capacity and speed, year after year."

Two years after launching its Atlantic network mesh, the company continued its leadership in undersea-cable meshing by completing a seven-way diverse transpacific mesh in September - adding nodes in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea to the existing nodes in Japan. A network mesh provides multiple alternate paths for rerouting traffic in the event of a network interruption.

The Asia-Pacific mesh increases network availability, reducing provisioning intervals from three weeks to one week and lowering latency (the time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another) up to 15% from the US to Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The company also completed the first phase of its North America mesh this year, deploying 22 new mesh nodes in the US and expanding its network into Canada, with new nodes located in Toronto and Montreal.

In May, Verizon Business joined 16 companies in a consortium to build the undersea cable system called Europe India Gateway (EIG). Connecting Europe, the Middle East and India, the 14 000-kilometer (9 000-mile) cable system is expected to be completed in 2010. The EIG will provide Verizon Business customers a second diverse landing in France, where the company will operate the landing station that connects to the Verizon Business ultra long haul (ULH) network in Europe.

During the third quarter, Verizon Business announced it would be the first to market with the Trans-Pacific Express (TPE), the submarine cable network that connects the United States with mainland China. The cable already carries 40% of all Verizon Business' transpacific Private IP traffic.

Built directly between the US and mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan, TPE operates at a capacity of 3.2 terabits per second. This 18 000-kilometer (11 000-mile) cable system has 80 wavelengths per fibre, the highest wave density, or capacity, of any similar distance submarine cable in the world.

This year also saw Verizon Business adding 12 new markets in four countries on its Private IP network, with network expansion into Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Pakistan and Iceland. In addition, the company also added diversity with new Private IP nodes in Taipei, Seoul and Shanghai, as well as one in Dubai in partnership with du, the United Arab Emirates integrated telecommunications service provider.

Verizon Business also completed extensive network expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. The company built backbone links to several major Asian hubs and added another node in Shanghai for diversity. Partnering with China Telecom, the company expanded its network in China and, for the second year in a row, China Telecom awarded Verizon Business its Most Valued Partner award.

In January, the company received a licence to offer international and national long-distance services in India and, six months later, launched its Private IP service there. In a joint venture with the Videocon Group, Verizon Business completed deploying its Private IP network in five cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad) and looks toward expanding both coverage and service in India.

Early in the year, the company also expanded its Private IP service in Mexico with new nodes in Mexico City and Monterrey.

In 2004, Verizon Business was the first major communications service provider to announce deployment of an extensive ULH network in the US. ULH improves network performance and efficiency while enabling quicker network restoration and provisioning.

This year, the company continued expansion, adding more than 8 000km (5 000 miles) in the US, bringing the total US ULH network to 58 300km (36 000 miles). Globally, the company launched 155km (100 miles) in Japan in 2008, adding to its already existing global presence in Europe where the company has 3 100km (1 900 miles).

Continuing to deploy its converged packet architecture (CPA), Verizon Business added 18 new cities in seven countries, including Mexico, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and Poland. This brings the total Verizon Business CPA presence to 76 cities in 24 countries.

CPA enables convergence of all services onto a single packet access connection through a simple Ethernet interface, allowing customers to take advantage of their existing network equipment while quickly adding incremental services.

In September, for the tenth consecutive year, TeleGeography recognised Verizon Business as the world's most connected Internet backbone. Using autonomous systems (AS) connectivity as its measure, TeleGeography found that Verizon Business has the greatest number of AS connections of any public IP network in the world. The autonomous system ranking is a measure of the connectedness of an IP network to the rest of the public Internet. The AS ranking demonstrates the closeness of the network to the rest of the Internet through the number of "hops" (segments on network routes) data must take to reach its destination.

During 2008, the company continued pushing 100-gigabit (100G) technology closer to commercial deployment by participating in two key 100G trials. In September, Verizon and Nokia Siemens Networks set a new distance record of 1 040km (650 miles) for 100G optical transmission across field fiber. A month later, Verizon and Nortel announced the results of a trial that achieved better tolerance for signal distortion than standard 10G transmission. Verizon Business also continued to expand its IP backbone with 40G capabilities.

"We continue to invest in global network expansion and in innovative technologies that give our customers a competitive edge - whether it's on the other side of the world or close to home," said Briggs.