Verizon Business and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will add new long‑haul fiber links to connect AWS data centers. The work aims to carry the heavy traffic that comes with modern AI tasks.
Scott Lawrence, Verizon Business SVP and Chief Product Officer, said the move shows the fast rise of AI. He told RCR Wireless News: “yet another sign of the exponential growth of AI.” He added: “AI workloads require 10 to 100 times more bandwidth than traditional cloud services, and network traffic from AI is projected to grow dramatically through 2030. This deal is a significant commitment to enabling this data growth through network connectivity … [and] provides the foundational, high-capacity, low-latency connectivity between the core cloud and the edge, which is essential for enabling the scalable distribution of AI workloads, wherever they need to reside.”
The project will also boost Verizon’s AI Connect offering. AI Connect links Verizon’s programmable network, fiber, edge compute, and 5G/mmWave to give firms the bandwidth and low delay they need for training models and running real‑time AI.
Verizon is pushing hard on fiber as part of a larger plan. The company bought Frontier Communications for $20 billion, a deal cleared by the FCC in May. That purchase will grow Verizon’s fiber reach to about 25 million premises across 31 states and Washington D.C.
For 2025, Verizon plans roughly 650,000 new Fios passings, and it expects to build more than 1 million passings a year after the Frontier deal closes. The new long‑haul lines for AWS will be built in several segments to link data centers in different regions.
Lawrence said added fiber gives customers better performance and more reliable service for AI work. “AI is essential to the future of business, and the demands it places on the network are immense,” said Lawrence. “While this announcement is focused on our strengthened strategic relationship with AWS, we are building the AI infrastructure needed to meet the growing demands of AI workloads. This initiative is a significant commitment to that future.”
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