[January 04, 2010] Verizon Touts 2009 Network Investment Tweet Jan 05, 2010 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Verizon reported that it has invested more than $17 billion this year in its wireless and wireline networks in the U.S. and internationally. The Verizon global IP network serves more than 2,700 cities in 159 countries, and its wireless network reaches approximately 289 million Americans. "It's no accident that again this year, Verizon's consumer and business services won major industry awards," said Dick Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Verizon. "The better the network, the better the performance of the applications that ride on them. It's as simple as that." Strategic network investments in 2009 provided additional reliability, resiliency and performance for Verizon's business, government and wholesale customers, the company said. Among the highlights: - With the launch of its multiyear packet optical transport platform strategy, Verizon is creating a single, higher-capacity platform that combines optical transport with advanced packet-switching technology. This optical switching gear can handle both traditional, time-division multiplexing transmissions as well as packet traffic to create a single, high-capacity intelligent network. Verizon has plans to integrate packet capabilities into its ultra-long-haul (ULH) network by early 2011. - In December, Verizon successfully deployed a commercial 100G (gigabits per second) ultra-long-haul optical system for live traffic on the company's European optical core network between Paris and Frankfurt. The accomplishment marked the first time for deployment of ultra-long-haul100G using a single channel on a production network. - With more than 5,200 additional miles added in 2009, Verizon continued to extend its ultra-long-haul network. Regions added this year include France and central regions of the U.K. as well as new routes in the existing ULH network in the U.S. ULH technology streamlines the network infrastructure and extends transmission without regeneration, eliminating thousands of pieces of equipment and physical connections among network elements, resulting in a more manageable and reliable network. ULH supports both 40G and 100G capacity, which pave the way for high-bandwidth data applications as customers push more high-bandwidth-intensive applications such as immersive video and bandwidth on demand. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]