The long-anticipated move to a 40 Gb/s backbone network arrived last week for Verizon Business.

The company announced it had turned up Juniper Networks' 40G T-series routers to handle Internet traffic between Chicago and Washington, D.C., and to carry its MPLS network between New York and Washington.

Verizon Business has been testing 40G since its MCI days, beginning in 2004, and at one point expected to deploy the technology in 2006. In March, Fred Briggs, executive vice president of network operations and technology for Verizon Business, did a series of media interviews about the company's network plans and said the 40G turn-up would happen in the second quarter.

According to the company, the most recent slippage took place so that additional testing could be done on the new routers.

Verizon continues to work with Juniper and other vendors, according to the company, with the expectation of turning up more 40G links this year and throughout 2008.

Verizon has indicated, however, that 40G is only an interim step — it could be turning up 100 Gb/s links as early as 2008, but more likely in 2009.