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Verizon Offering Pricing Incentives to Content-Delivery Network Providers to Connect Directly to Company's Internet Backbone Network

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 January 2009, 07:00 CST

Verizon's Partner Port Program Offers New, Lower Pricing for Direct Network Links for Delivery of Video, Other Content to the Verizon Internet Backbone Network; Content Owners and CDNs Get Faster Connections

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its aggressive approach to attracting more broadband content and improving broadband customers' online experience, Verizon will now offer content owners like online movie services, as well as content delivery network providers (CDNs), a significantly lower price to connect directly to the Verizon Internet backbone network.

The new pricing initiative -- the Verizon Partner Port Program -- gives content owners and CDNs the benefit of a direct connection from their content storage devices to the Verizon Internet backbone network. This allows content owners and CDNs to bypass the traditional backbone peering process, which involves multicarrier delivery systems, when delivering content to the broadband end users on Verizon's network. The result is a faster, more responsive connection to Verizon's networks, priced to be competitive within the content delivery market.

"We have built one of the most robust networks in the marketplace and are providing a pricing structure that moves content providers and CDNs beyond traditional delivery systems to a model that taps that capacity in the best interest of broadband customers," said Quintin Lew, senior vice president of Verizon Partner Solutions, the company's wholesale services division.

The specific rates and charges for each customer will be determined based on various factors including the number and location of the customer's connections, customer's total bandwidth commitment (as well as the bandwidth commitment at each location) and the traffic ratio profile.

Under the Partner Port Program, content owners and CDNs deposit their consumer-focused content directly onto the Verizon Internet backbone network at regional carrier "hotels" without the need for connections that use longer, less direct and often costly middlemen architectures that involve multiple connections, or "hops," among multiple carriers. By bypassing these pathways, content owners and CDNs can deliver to their broadband customers on Verizon's networks lower "latency" -- the time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another.

"When it comes to content delivery, speed is critical," Lew said. "Pricing under the Partner Port Program encourages content owners and CDNs to purchase a direct connection into one of the highest-capacity Internet backbone networks around, thus increasing speed and reliability in delivering their content to the end users on Verizon's broadband network.

"By accessing our Internet backbone network regionally rather than transporting content across the continent to reach users, content owners can have the confidence that their material is connecting to Verizon's network over shorter paths with fewer 'hops,'" Lew said. "The result is fewer opportunities for delays or packet-loss failures due to traffic or other technical incidents like router failures, fiber cuts and the like."

The Verizon Partner Port Program offers improved connections to the Internet for purposes of providing content to customers on Verizon's broadband network; but it does not prioritize any content delivered over the Internet or prevent end users on other broadband networks from accessing the content delivered to Verizon's Internet backbone through this program.

In addition to the Verizon Partner Port Program, Verizon has been working in other ways to ensure a high-quality Internet experience for its broadband customers. Verizon has improved the efficiency of content delivered over the Internet through a new turnkey content-delivery network managed by Velocix, which improves consumer video delivery. Verizon is also supporting peer-to-peer file transfers using the P4P Working Group's network efficiency model, which improves the efficiency of content transmission by reducing the number of "hops" content must travel before delivery to the end user.

Verizon has been a champion of this new content-delivery option for peer-to-peer traffic proposed by the Distributed Computing Industry Association as a solution to network capacity challenges, about which some broadband providers have expressed concerns.

The new P4P Working Group solution, now awaiting formal standards adoption, uses information about the design of networks to deliver content more efficiently from local sources rather than from distant storage sites, lowering long-haul network traffic and helping to control associated costs.

Verizon's Douglas Pasko, a senior technologist, will discuss the Partner Port Program on Wednesday (Jan. 7) during a presentation at the P2P Media Summit sponsored by the Distributed Computing Industry Association in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

In addition, Boh Dupree, group marketing manager for Verizon, will be a panelist at the Summit, discussing architectural, CDN-related and other technological solutions in development to support peer-assisted deployments.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving nearly 71 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 228,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

SOURCE Verizon

Source: PR Newswire

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