Optical Brighteners *

Verizon Business enterprise customers can take advantage of increased network capacity and additional diversity for their IP, data and voice communications needs, with the completion of the latest Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable landing -- in Shin Maruyama, Japan.

The newest landing is the sixth TPE submarine cable landing site on the 18,000 kilometer (more than 11,000 miles) network system, which connects Japan to South Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China and the U.S. Verizon is the landing party for the U.S.

Originally announced in December 2006 by the six founding TPE Consortium members - Verizon Business, China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan -the TPE cable uses the latest optical technology to provide greater capacity at high speeds to meet the dramatic increase in demand for IP, data and voice communications in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific countries.

The first phase of the 5.12 terabit fiber-optic cable system was ready for service in September 2008. NTT Communications joined the TPE Consortium as the next cable-landing party member, and the new link from Asia to Japan was built to complete the next phase.

“We knew this TPE cable network would be important to the communications industry and all companies expanding in the northern Asia region,” said Ihab Tarazi, Verizon vice president for global network planning. “As we place live production traffic on this new route, our Verizon Business customers with locations in Japan benefit from the direct connectivity to mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea.”

Connecting TPE to Japan has enhanced Verizon Business' service availability through added redundancy and increased capacity in support of Global Voice, Private IP and Public IP services, as well as point-to-point customer requirements. Verizon Business also has fiber connections to customers in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka.

This Japan extension of the TPE system adds even more diversity and capacity to the company's extensive Asia-Pacific meshed network that connects the U.S. to Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and India. This new link will enhance Verizon Business capabilities to reroute Asia-Pacific network traffic in the event of a major event, like an earthquake or typhoon, which could damage multiple undersea cables.

Verizon Business was the first service provider to deploy seven-way diversity across the Pacific and will expand its current six-way mesh network to Japan to a seven-way mesh network.

“We have to make sure we have as much diversity and route flexibility as possible when we design our mesh networks so our multinational customers continue receiving the high-quality network performance and reliability they expect from Verizon Business,” Tarazi said. “We have seen a dramatic improvement in our overall network performance since we introduced our mesh network, and we will continue to expand our mesh capabilities throughout 2010.”