Verizon Goes Global With VPLS

NEW YORK -- Ethernet Expo Americas 2009 -- Verizon Business 's new global Virtual Private LAN Service, announced here today, is ready to hit the ground running in 31 locations in Europe and Asia, as well as in the U.S.

The service delivers a consistent customer experience via a global provisioning platform and global network resources, says Michael Volgende, marketing director for Ethernet services at Verizon and a keynote speaker here.

Verizon is not first to the global VPLS story. (See AT&T Unveils Global VPLS.) But Volgende maintains Verizon can differentiate on quality of service and coverage.

"This is not just a global VPLS story. It's about our global platform and our coverage, our switch deployments, our interconnections and our global provisioning Ethernet platform," Volgende says. "This isn't something we have suddenly adopted for global VPLS. It is something global VPLS is leveraging."

The Layer 2 VPN combines Ethernet and multiprotocol label switching to let enterprises connect any size of facility with the appropriate bandwidth and deliver converged services -- voice, data, and video, Volgende says. Part of Verizon's commitment to the consistent customer experience is its work with 125 partners providing access services, each of which has gone through Verizon's certification process. Verizon will lease TDM access, use an independent third party exchange, or do direct network-to-network interconnection, Volgende says. Verizon has 22 direct NNIs in EMEA, 21 in Asia Pacific and 90 in the Americas.

"In any case, access is integrated as part of the service I deliver, and I manage that access through the certification program," Volgende says. "We have multiple options for connections in each country."

The Ethernet VPLS represents a compelling story in difficult economic times, Volgende says, because it enables companies to "enhance performance, increase speed, better manage their network connections, and, at the same time, control their costs."

Verizon lets customers manage connections by department or cost center, so that they look like giant LANs, and gives them control over changes or additions to those LANs, Volgende says. The Global VPLS service also offers the scalability inherent in Ethernet and application-specific quality of service.

The countries covered include: in Asia-Pac, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan; in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.

— Carol Wilson, Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading