Verizon Makes Good on 100G

Earlier this year, Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings) promised to take its European 100G experience stateside by the end of Q2, deploying the latest ULH technology on a handful of routes. Today they made good on that promise and announced the deployment of Ciena’s 100G coherent solution in the US, although perhaps a little bit later than the end of Q2.  What with the strike and all, I’m sure plenty of schedules were upended.

They didn’t say where, just that it was on a portion of their US backbone – but the initial routes had been expected to be Chicago to New York, Sacramento to Los Angeles, and Minneapolis to Kansas City. They plan to deploy the technology on 10 routes by the end of the year, so there is more to come.  Verizon’s early interest in 100G comes from a) their financial strength and size, and b) the relative age and composition of their overall longhaul fiber infrastructure.

100G is just starting to make economic sense for most carriers. The demand is definitely there for the bandwidth, but the equipment pricing is still evolving. Ciena has long been at the forefront, and is surely quite eager for this next phase of upgrades to kick into a higher gear.

 

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Categories: ILECs, PTTs · Internet Backbones · Telecom Equipment