July 20, 2004 Murray Hill, NJ-- Verizon will become the first service provider in the United States to deploy Lucent Technologies LambdaXtreme Transport DWDM for its next-generation nationwide ultra-long-haul optical network, under a three-year agreement. The next-generation network, part of Verizon's Enterprise Advance growth initiative announced in November 2002, will strategically position the company in expanding its nationwide reach.
Verizon plans to begin deployment of LambdaXtreme Transport - a DWDM core optical networking solution capable of transmitting trillions of bits of information across continents - this summer. The selection of the LambdaXtreme Transport supports Verizon Enterprise Advance by enabling the company to expand its service portfolio for large business and government customers by connecting existing regional networks across the country via an IP backbone.
The network will enable Verizon to provide high bandwidth services over a nationwide automated photonic network while at the same time substantially increasing and enhancing Verizon's ability to support its customers current and future requirements for high-bandwidth applications -- while reducing capital and operating expenses.
By deploying the ultra-long-haul DWDM transmission equipment, the per mile wavelength transport cost is significantly lower compared to first generation DWDM. Lucent is the sole supplier for this technology that will provide a high capacity network capable of carrying traffic farther and faster than ever before.
"This high capacity, ultra-long-haul network is a significant step in expanding the services we can offer customers nationwide, and creates revenue streams through new offerings, such as wavelength-on-demand and video applications,"said Claudia Cuddy, vice president of global network solutions at Verizon. "Expanding our reach, reducing our costs and making our network more efficient while maintaining existing reliability all give us the competitive edge we need to support our aggressive strategic direction and growing business needs."
Verizon will be the only U.S. service provider with a nationwide ultra-long-haul DWDM 10-Gbit/sec and 40-Gbit/sec network poised to support high bandwidth applications.
Developed with the help of Bell Labs, LambdaXtreme Transport is a third-generation DWDM system that offers one platform for both high capacity and ultra-long-reach networking. It is capable of sending 10-Gbit/sec and 40-Gbit/sec optical signals over great distances without the cost of electrical regenerator sites, reducing capital and operations costs. LambdaXtreme Transport also enables carriers to offer services that require rapid provisioning via simple clicks of a mouse. Its high-capacity reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer allows traffic to be added/dropped all optically. This is aligned with customers' requirements of moving toward all optical networks that provides lower costs and more efficient networking.