Verizon Business Statement on Expansion of Membership in Trans-Pacific Express

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - The Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) Consortium today announced two new members: NTT Communications and AT&T.  For the past 15 months, Verizon Business and the original members have been aggressively building the TPE, which is the first next-generation, high-capacity undersea system to link the United States with mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea.  Verizon Business announced March 18 that it is working closely with its Asian partners to activate the U.S.-mainland China link a month in advance of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China (http://www.verizonbusiness.com/us/about/news).

Verizon Business teamed up with charter TPE Consortium team members - China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan) - to expedite the longest leg of the 18,000-kilometer (more than 11,000 miles) cable system.

The following response should be attributed to Ihab Tarazi, Verizon Business vice president of global network planning:

"As an original member of the TPE Consortium, we welcome NTT and AT&T.

"NTT's participation is great news for our multinational customers, who will benefit from an additional link with Japan.  In addition to our charter membership in the TPE, Verizon Business already is a member of Japan-U.S. undersea cable system.

"Our customers with locations in Japan will benefit from direct connectivity to mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea.  In Japan, Verizon Business has fiber connections to our customers in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka.  The Japan extension of the TPE system will add even more diversity and capacity to our meshed Asia-Pacific network. 

"Our participation in more than 18 submarine cable systems in the Asia-Pacific region and more than 65 undersea cable systems worldwide, coupled with our leadership in mesh technology, offers our multinational customers unsurpassed capacity, speed and reliability." 

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