As expected, Verizon Business this week launched its nationwide Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), which is designed to enable businesses to connect offices around the country as if they were on the same Ethernet LAN.

The service, called Ethernet VPLS (E-VPLS), is a Layer 2 meshed multipoint service that supports both voice and data transmission and allows customers to adjust their networks’ bandwidth from 1Mbps to 1Gbps. It is based on the carrier’s converged packet-access architecture, which allows Ethernet customers to access a variety of Verizon Business WAN services, such as the carrier’s public Internet and MPLS-based Private IP VPN, as well as Ethernet Virtual Private Line (E-VPL) and E-VPLS.

E-VPLS is intended for businesses that prefer to maintain control of their routing, for security and staffing purposes, rather than share it with their service provider. It supports both IP and non-IP applications, Verizon Business says, and is an “end-to-end” Ethernet service, meaning frame relay and ATM customers must replace their access circuits with Ethernet in order to use the service.

The service also is intended to help migrate frame and ATM users to a fully meshed MPLS network, such as E-VPLS or Private IP. Other Verizon Business Ethernet services, such as the Private IP-Layer 2 pseudowire service announced four months ago, enable frame and ATM access to Private IP.

VPLS was requested by the U.S. General Services Administration as part of its Networx program, which is designed to help federal agencies make the transition to next-generation networking services.

E-VPLS supports the prioritization of applications via four classes of service (CoS): Real Time, Priority, Business and Basic Data. Real Time CoS is designed for latency-sensitive traffic, such as VoIP and digital video.

E-VPLS service level agreements (SLAs) include 100% on-net and 99.9% off-net availability; meantime to repair of two hours on-net, four hours off-net; 100 millisecond round-trip delay for Real Time CoS; data-delivery ratios of 99.995% Real Time, 99.99% Priority and Business Data CoS, and 99.5% for Basic Data; and 5 millisecond jitter for Real Time CoS.

The price for E-VPLS includes nonrecurring charges for installation, bandwidth increases and decreases, and the addition or removal of MAC address blocks; and monthly recurring charges for access, bandwidth and premium QoS, and MAC address blocks.

For a Fortune 100 customer using E-VPLS to connect six sites spread across the US -- with bandwidth ranging from 10Mbps to 100Mbps per site and an average of 10% of bandwidth per site for applications requiring Real Time performance -- the monthly price will be about $48,000, Verizon Business says, claiming that it’s 25% cheaper than a hub-and-spoke configuration of leased lines.

Verizon Business also says E-VPLS is priced comparably to the carrier’s Private IP. E-VPLS is available in the United States and will be available internationally next year. Verizon Business claims to be the first major carrier offering nationwide VPLS and that may be true – AT&T offers it in metropolitan areas but plans to offer it nationally next year.

In addition to E-VPLS, Verizon Business’ Ethernet services include:

• Ethernet Private Line (E-PL), which provides point-to-point Ethernet transport within 145 U.S. metropolitan markets and 10 European countries;

• Ethernet Virtual Private Line (E-VPL), which provides point-to-point Ethernet virtual connections nationwide and in six Asia-Pacific countries and territories, as well as between the U.S. and six Asia-Pacific regions and 10 European countries.

• E-LAN Metro Services, which provide multipoint bridging within 53 metro markets in the United States; and

• Ethernet Access for Private IP and the public Internet, which is available nationwide, within 19 European countries and nine countries within the Asia-Pacific region.

Customers may use Ethernet as a stand-alone end-to-end service in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, or as a means of accessing either the Internet or Private IP.