Verizon Business today announced it will extend the reach of its Ethernet virtual private line service (EVPL) to six countries in Asia, enabling multi-national customers to more easily connect to their facilities, financial exchanges and trading partners in that part of the globe.

The new service to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan comes in addition to the existing EVPL service to 10 countries in Europe. As part of its global Ethernet service, Verizon also offers Ethernet private line service to 10 countries in Europe and Ethernet access to the Internet and private IP networks in Europe and in seven Asian locations. The company has been steadily expanding its global reach to meet growing customer demand.

“We are very much in tune with customer demand,” said Alla Resnick, group manager of Ethernet marketing for Verizon Business. “For EVPL international, our key customers are multinationals with key locations that may be an Asian Pacific hub or regional headquarters or a financial exchange that operates in Asia Pacific – that demand by customers drives our selection of locations.”

The EVPL service provides a point-to-point virtual LAN with dedicated Wide Area Network capacity that can be used to connect multiple locations and is predominantly aimed at large corporations. It features the simplicity of Ethernet connectivity plus flexibility, bandwidth granularity and stringent Service Level Agreements, she added.

“We think this is a significant step forward in the globalization of Ethernet and a significant enhancement to our portfolio,” Resnick said.

The security of the link makes it particularly appealing to banks and financial institutions, she said.

Ethernet has been a highly popular service in Asia for some time now – well in advance of its success in the U.S. market – but Verizon believes it can compete for business in those markets, as well as among U.S. multinationals looking for Asian connectivity, said Michael Volgende, director of Ethernet Services marketing.

“We feel confident we can compete effectively in both markets,” he said “We have been very successful domestically and this is the next progression to provide additional availability to our domestic customers who have locations in these markets. We also feel we are going to be able to compete intra-region. We are not just regional or local we are a global provider. We think it’s a very strong story both to domestic customers as well as intraAsia companies who have locations both there and in other markets.”

EVPL is provided, along with other forms of Ethernet access, over Verizon’s Converged Packet Access architecture, which allows multiple Ethernet services to be delivered over a single User Network Interface.

Verizon will continue its expansion of Ethernet in 2007, Resnick said, to include New Zealand, The Phillipines and Malaysia, as well as Canada, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and additional European sites.