Verizon Business is the enterprise arm of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc, which in January acquired MCI for $6.7bn.
The company is spending billions on three major projects: converting its backbone network to ultra long haul; converging its IP networks to a single IP core; and integrating its networks with MCI’s, said Fred Briggs, EVP of network operations and technology at Verizon Business.
Later in the day, Kevin Gahan, Verizon Business VP of global networks, said Verizon this year expects to invest $15bn in network infrastructure.
While Verizon already has chosen Ciena, Lucent and Siemens as its equipment vendors to help it convert its US network to ultra long haul, the job for its European overhaul is still open, Briggs said.
For this and other contracts, Briggs gave the impression to the roomful of reporters at its North Carolina facility that Verizon Business was increasingly open to smaller vendors.
When asked about Verizon’s intention to move away from the large vendors that dominate the telecom equipment industry to smaller, agile players, Briggs said the company was keeping an open mind.
We will bring in a lot of smaller companies and, frankly, work with them to work out what we want, he told ComputerWire.
The ultra long haul upgrade is to accommodate the growth of IP telephony, video and streaming data, among other IP communications. The network is going through a significant transformation, Briggs said
Verizon is doing ultra long haul very differently from some of our competitors, Briggs noted. That is, it is building its network on dual-rail ULH architecture, which essentially means a parallel layer of electronics for higher resiliency and latency.
By having a parallel architecture, Verizon is able to route its traffic on the shortest path for as long as possible to minimize latency, Briggs said.
Latency on the data networks is becoming more of a differentiator, he said. So we think we provide better service with our dual-ring ULH architecture.
About half of Verizon’s network in the US has already been converted to ultra long haul, or ULH. The company expects to finish the project in another two years after that.
The company also will enable 40Gbps intercity transmission later this year, Briggs said. We will probably be the first carrier to deploy that commercially, he said. One of its existing ULH US-network vendors likely will win the contract for the 40Gbps capability.
But by 2009, Verizon expects to boost that to 100Gbs and will hear bids from numerous vendors, Biggs said.
Also, next year, Verizon will begin discussions with vendors to begin a ULH network conversion in Europe, Briggs said.
Vendors also are vying to build a box to converge Verizon’s existing five IP networks, which include a private IP backbone, Verizon’s Internet network and a vBNS, which was set up as an experimental Internet 2.0-type network but became a network for Verizon government customers.
Next year, these will converge into one network, Briggs said. We will logically create all those networks onto one IP core.
In other words, Verizon Business will enable logical, rather than physical, networks on a common infrastructure, which promises to reduce the number of routers required by as much as half. The single-IP core network is slated for deployment in 2007, Briggs said.
We are working with multiple vendors on this, he said. But a single vendor contract, while rare for Verizon Business, is a possibility, he added.
Don’t assume this significant contract would likely go to Cisco and Juniper, which clearly are players in the game for network equipment, Briggs said. But don’t assume they’re the only two players.
In the meantime, the company needs to iron out some marketing concerns on the single IP core because enterprise customers often don’t want their MPLS networks to be touching the public IP network, Briggs said.
From a technical standpoint, they will always be separate, he said. But marketing it as one core may be problematic.
Verizon Business also is working to move all its voice traffic to the former MCI network, which will grow that network as much as 35% in terms of voice minutes. The transfer will be complete by the end of the year.
The company also expects to migrate all MCI Internet traffic to Verizon’s by year’s end. So far, it’s about 85% complete, Briggs said.
Indeed, most of the MCI-Verizon network integration will be complete by 2007, he said.
Elsewhere, Verizon Business is working to consolidate all its billing into four major billing engines by 2008. By the end of the year, customers can expect a single portal for all Verizon units.
The thing the industry has struggled with as a whole is billing, Briggs said. Indeed a cottage industry has been built around managing telecommunications billing. One of our goals is to get rid of that cottage industry, it may take a while.
At the end of the year, for example, Verizon Business will give customers new tools to enable them to analyze their various communication bills, he said.
And the company is currently piloting a single Verizon Business and Verizon Telecom bill. The goal is to add Verizon Wireless too, Briggs said.
Verizon Business also is beginning to roll out a new emergency preparedness consulting service for enterprises, said Dick Price, director of business continuance and emergency management.
The new consulting service, called Verizon StormCon, is in response to greater enterprise interest in disaster preparedness in the wake of last year’s devastating hurricane season, Price said.
It is geared toward both Verizon and non-Verizon customers, and will be sold stand-alone or as part of other Verizon business continuity services, he said.
