Verizon CEO Details Network Advances

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg provided a mid-year update on progress and plans for his company’s efforts on the network evolution and customer acquisitions fronts during a morning keynote presentation at NXTcomm.

He focused on the latest advances in wireless and wireline networks as well progress toward goals on multiple fronts including customer acceptance of its FiOS video-driven triple-play offering.

“Our fiber-to-the-home will reach 9 million people by yearend and 18 million by the end of the decade,” said Seidenberg, claiming that “every job created by broadband generates four in the broader economy.”

He said Verizon’s FTTH network can provide 50MB of bandwidth today, with the ability to handle 100MB and beyond, adding that its uses GPON systems in all deployments now and is testing over the optical systems now.

“We’re building an all optical and [ultra-long haul] network to deliver 40GB of speed,” said Seidenberg, whose company was among the very first to broadly deploy ULH transmission technology in its network a few years ago.

Seidenberg followed by saying that Verizon has added 6,000 route miles to its network, putting it half way to goal of 50,000 route miles in the United States. Verizon also is extending the reach of its IP network in Europe and Asia, he noted.

On the overall broadband front, including wireless, the Verizon CEO, said 23 million of its wireless customers have broadband-capable devices and in the first quarter alone the telco had customers download more than 30 million songs over-the-air to their handsets, crediting the 3G network for enabling this.

He said Verizon Wireless is amidst a Rev. A upgrade to its network this year.

Seidenberg claims to have 7 million broadband customers, which has helped drive revenue growth. “The growth rate was flat five years ago and is at 5 percent now. It’s the first time in a long time that consumer revenues are growing.”

At the end of the first quarter of this year, the CEO said his company had more than 1 million FiOS Internet customers, with video being available in an ever broadening area.

Verizon Communication Inc. www.verizon.com

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines