As promised earlier this year, Verizon Business has gone live with a 40 Gb/s network, using Juniper Networks’ T-series core routers to carry Internet traffic at that speed between Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and on its multi-protocol label switched network between Washington and New York City.

The move to take 40G live is coming a few months later than the second quarter target date, due to a decision to extend the testing period, a spokeswoman said. The move from the 10 Gb/s widely deployed today is required in order to handle the bandwidth required to meet the demand for Gigabit Ethernet traffic and to support the Verizon FiOS fiber-to-the-home buildout and the video services it delivers. Verizon had at one time expected to move to 40 Gb/s earlier – the company has been testing the technology since 2004, when it was still MCI.

“Moving from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s demonstrates Verizon Business's commitment to meet our customer needs and invest in state-of-the art technology that takes our backbone infrastructure to the next level,” said Fred Briggs, executive vice president of network operations and technology for Verizon Business, in a prepared statement. “Aggregating IP traffic onto one 40Gbps wavelength means not only higher traffic throughput, but lower latency and reduced jitter, which translates into enhanced performance and responsiveness for Verizon Business customers.”

Verizon will continue to upgrade its backbone network to 40 Gb/s throughout this year and into 2008. Briggs said earlier this year that he expects Verizon could start upgrading to 100 Gb/s as early as 2008, depending on when its equipment vendors are able to come through with the gear. According to the spokeswoman, Verizon has 40G projects under way with multiple vendors, but has only gone live using Juniper gear thus far.