Verizon has been conducting 100 Gigabit core network trials with Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel for some time, and back in April issued a statement promising that "selected segments" of its U.S. backbone network would be 100 Gigabit by the end of the second quarter of this year. While a little late, Verizon this week announced that they've taken 100 Gigabit links live on "a portion" of their national network, with plans to deploy this next-generation technology on more than 10 routes in 2011. Verizon had already deployed a 555-mile stretch of 100 Gigabit capability running from Paris to Frankfurt, and their 100G upgrade here in the States will occur in three segments: Chicago to New York, Sacramento to Los Angeles, and Minneapolis to Kansas City. The deployment here in the States will use Juniper Networks routers and Ciena's 100G coherent optical transport solution.