NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Verizon has selected the Tellabs® 7100 optical transport system to provide next-generation solutions in the backbone of its metro networks. Initially Verizon will deploy the Tellabs® 7100 system to provide enhanced reliability and efficiency in its FiOS Fiber-to-the-Premises triple-play network. Later, Verizon will use the Tellabs 7100 system to converge all of its core metro services onto flexible, dynamic DWDM (dense wave division multiplexing) transport.

"Together, Verizon and Tellabs are defining the future of advanced optical transport networks optimized for broadband delivery," said Krish Prabhu, Tellabs president and chief executive officer. "Verizon's choice of Tellabs extends the two companies' longstanding relationship of more than 20 years."

The Tellabs® 7100 optical transport system will help simplify Verizon's video, voice and data network, dramatically reducing transport costs and enabling quick response to changing customer needs for services such as video on demand. The Tellabs 7100 system integrates pure optical switching via wavelength selective switches (WSS), ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing), Ethernet switching, next-generation SONET/SDH ADMs (add-drop multiplexers) and DWDM into a single platform. It decreases operating expenses by eliminating network elements and reducing equipment interconnections.

"Tellabs has developed a next-generation optical transport platform that meets Verizon's requirements to significantly reduce the number of transport elements, simplify network creation and customer service activation, and lower the total cost of ownership," said Paul Lacouture, Verizon executive vice president of Engineering and Technology.

Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA)