CARY, N.C. - Verizon Business is readying major changes to its network designed to result in a faster, more reliable system capable of supporting next-generation services for enterprises, such as Ethernet, VoIP and IP-based videoconferencing.

This summer, the former MCI will implement pseudowires, a technique for encapsulating frame relay, ATM and other old data access circuits in Ethernet for transmission through an IP/MPLS core. This should reduce costs for enterprise customers as well as help them migrate to Ethernet, according to Fred Briggs, executive vice president of network operations and technology. Ethernet generally provides a lower cost per bit than traditional private line services, and consolidating access over one circuit should lower costs as well.

"Ethernet and Layer 2 switching are becoming the dominant [access] architecture," Briggs said last week during a conference with the media at Verizon Business' global network management facilities in Cary, N.C.

The carrier will be playing catch-up to at least one competitor, analysts say.

"Compared to Sprint, Verizon Business is a little late coming out with a Layer 2 migration technology to MPLS," says Lisa Pierce, an analyst at Forrester Research. "And it has quite a large installed base of frame relay customers. So this is a way to begin the migration."

Later this year, Verizon Business plans to boost bandwidth on up to three routes in its ultra-long-haul backbone to 40Gbps from 10Gbps. The upgrade was tested last year on a route between San Francisco and San Jose in which 10Gbps and 40Gbps wavelengths were supported on the same fiber carrying high-definition television videoconferences, gaming, music downloads, VoIP and hundreds of videostreams, Briggs said.

The Verizon Business backbone can support 80 40Gbps wavelengths, he said. But even though 40Gbps is not yet rolled out, Verizon Business is looking past that to 100Gbps and 160Gbps.

The carrier says it hopes to have the increases in the next two or three years, Briggs said, while maintaining the 80-wavelength capacity.

AT&T and Global Crossing also have plans to boost backbone bandwidth to 40Gbps but neither carrier has discussed going beyond this.

Another enhancement, scheduled for early next year, will be flow-through provisioning, in which customers will be able to turn up new circuits or increase bandwidth in real time vs. waiting two to three weeks. For example, users will be able to go from 100M to 1Gbps in a matter of minutes through a Web portal, Briggs said.