Verizon Business Enhances European Network and Plans for Activation of Europe India Gateway Cable Later in 2010

Verizon Business is enhancing its European network infrastructure to help meet data-growth demands of its enterprise customers and prepare for the activation of the Europe India Gateway submarine cable network system later this year.

Placing customer benefits at the forefront of the European infrastructure investment decisions, the company is expanding its ultra-long-haul network; increasing the number of new and diverse multiprotocol label switching nodes for Private IP customers; adding converged packet architecture sites to help customers move their services onto one common access interface; and making final preparations at the Marseille, France, cable terminal, where customer traffic will move from the 15,000-kilometer Europe India Gateway cable system directly onto the Verizon Business European network.

"We are enhancing the European network capabilities to prepare for the growth of traffic from the Middle East and India that will follow the implementation of new IP and Ethernet nodes as well as the next generation of cable systems currently under construction," said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of Verizon global network planning.

After completing the ULH expansion project throughout France, which will become a critical route to move traffic from the Europe India Gateway (EIG) cable to the Verizon Business European network, the company is focused on a 1,300-kilometer ULH expansion project in the United Kingdom and a new diverse link between Europe and the U.K.  The company also is increasing the capability, as needed, of its ULH network, moving from 10 gigabits per second to 40G and even 100G on the Paris-to-Frankfurt route.

"Our multiyear ultra-long-haul program not only is a key factor for increasing our backbone network capacity, but also for what we can deliver to our customers," Tarazi said. "This network enables us to give our customers the higher speeds they need to support video, data and the expansion of data centers and cloud services."

(Listen here for more information about the Verizon Business ultra-long-haul project.)

With 214 global Private IP sites available on the Verizon Business network, the company plans to add more than 55 expansion sites within the next two years, including 22 sites in Europe and seven in the Middle East and India.

Verizon Business also is expanding its converged packet architecture (CPA) network in Europe this year, adding locations in Germany (Hamburg and Munich) and in the Netherlands (Rotterdam) to the 127 sites already on the global CPA network.

One of the most significant network enhancements to the European network during 2010 will be the activation of the EIG submarine cable system later this year.  With more than 93 percent of the marine installation completed, this next-generation, undersea optical cable system will link 12 countries/territories and connect Europe, the Middle East and India, giving Verizon Business customers direct access to the company's European and India networks.  Verizon Business is one of 16 companies building this cable.

"The EIG is using the most advanced technology available today for building submarine cables and will deliver significant capacity and diversity into many key areas," Tarazi said.  "As the world's leading companies grow their presence in emerging market regions, they know they can rely on Verizon Business' leading global network to support their business applications." 

With a design capacity of up to 3.84 terabits per second, the EIG cable will provide Verizon Business a second, diverse connection into the company's Marseille cable terminal.  The Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) submarine cable also lands at the Marseille site, and has diverse fiber routes and equipment rooms at the facility. Verizon Business is the only U.S.-based founding member of SEA-ME-WE 4.

Verizon Business is a global leader in helping engineer and design submarine cable networks, and the EIG is the third major undersea cable network system the company has helped launch in the last five years.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world's most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions.  We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees - enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment.  Many of the world's largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

####