Verizon Deploys Fiber Optics, New Equipment, Bringing Technology, Services To Carlstadt

CARLSTADT, N.J. -- Verizon is installing new fiber-optic cable and electronic equipment in Carlstadt Township as part of a $1.3 million project to upgrade Verizon's data and telecommunications network and provide additional services to its customers.

"Verizon is meeting or exceeding its commitment to bring the benefits of the Information Age to every citizen of the Garden State," said Dennis M. Bone, president of Verizon New Jersey. "Through projects like this one, we are investing nearly $20 million per week in our telecommunications network to provide New Jersey's residential and business communities with high-speed access to the Internet, work-at-home capabilities, as well as a host of other innovative advanced services."

The network modernization project, which includes the installation of over 2,200 miles of fiber-optic cable, will be completed in the first quarter of 2001.

This project provides facilities for current residential and business customers and will also serve the new Comdisco building at 777 Central Blvd. in Carlstadt. In addition, this new technology will allow Verizon to expand its ability to offer high-speed data services and provide additional reliability and survivability in the Verizon network.

Fiber-optic systems use hair--thin glass fibers and digital technology to deliver high quality phone service along with high-capacity/high-speed voice and data transmission services.

Bone said Verizon is aggressively deploying advanced technology in its network:

• Annual spending on the New Jersey network increased from $619 million in 1995 to $1.04 billion in the first eleven months of 2000.
• Miles of fiber-optic cable in New Jersey increased from 745,655 in 1995 to more than 1.4 million in the first nine months of 2000.
• Availability of Verizon's high-speed Internet access service, Verizon Online DSL, was expanded in 2000 to additional communities in Northern New Jersey and in parts of South Jersey. Verizon's DSL is now available to more than 1.4 million households and more than 3.5 million phone lines statewide.

"Verizon has kept its promise under Opportunity New Jersey and Access New Jersey to augment our high-speed data network bringing advanced telecommunications services to public schools and libraries in New Jersey," Bone said. The company has met and, in many cases exceeded commitments made to the Board of Public Utilities under the ONJ and ANJ programs. These programs offer wide-ranging network deployment initiatives that provide advanced telecommunications services and equipment to K-12 public schools and libraries in the state. "Our efforts have helped New Jersey gain the enviable reputation of being an innovative, technologically rich state," Bone said.

This year in New Jersey, Verizon has augmented its high-speed data network with additional switching capacity, launched a one-of-a-kind video portal that delivers two-way interactive video services to K-12 schools and donated an additional $10 million of equipment. In the past two years, the company has given a total of $20 million worth of equipment so that public schools and libraries could connect to the ANJ network.

In addition to deploying the latest technology, Verizon has spent tens of millions of dollars to open New Jersey's local telephone network to competition. In New Jersey, more than 80 companies are certified to provide local telecommunications services and 43 more have filed for regulatory approval.

These companies are experiencing explosive growth. In the first nine months of 2000, Verizon exchanged 9.3 billion minutes of local traffic with them -- nearly double the traffic exchanged with competitive local exchange carriers in all of 1999.

"We have irreversibly opened our markets to competition," Bone said. "We can't compel the long-distance giants or anyone else to compete here, but anyone who genuinely wants to enter our market can do so."