Verizon Replaces Copper with Fiber in Lower Manhattan

Verizon has completed the installation of fiber-optic cables between the company’s two critical central switching offices in lower Manhattan.  The rapid deployment replaces many copper lines which were damaged by flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy. Copper cables were destroyed that served businesses and residences in the area south of Worth Street, from the East River to the Hudson River. The damaged resulted from inundation of salt water mixed with diesel fuel.

Verizon now estimates that more than 70 percent of the affected buildings served by its Broad Street switching office, where copper services were most significantly damaged, have fiber-optic cables and facilities serving them, with many buildings downtown having full service.

In addition, Verizon estimates that this operation has already installed more than 5,000 miles of fiber strands in lower Manhattan and removed more than 100 tons of copper cables -- 30 percent more than all the copper in the Statue of Liberty.  The copper is being collected and recycled.

“We are doing years’ worth of work in just a few weeks’ time, and doing it round the clock,” said Martin Burvill, senior vice president of global operations for Verizon Enterprise Solutions.  “We are keenly focused on transforming the communications infrastructure of lower Manhattan with this new architecture in a way that fully benefits our residential and business customers.

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2012/verizon-completes-critical.html