Verizon Creates High-Speed Direct Trading Route From Aurora to New York Metro Financial Markets for CME Group

NEW YORK and CHICAGO, April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon announced today that it can deliver high-speed transactions directly to New York metro financial markets from CME Group's data center in Aurora, Ill., offering an ultra-low-latency round-trip route that bypasses traditional area "data hotels."  The CME Group Aurora data center is home to the CME Co-Location Services offering, which caters to more than 100 direct customers.

The new trading route, part of the Verizon Financial Network, is immediately available to CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse financial derivatives marketplace, and its financial services customers around the globe.  CME Group customers include global banks, hedge funds, futures commission merchants, proprietary trading firms, service providers and asset managers who now have additional capabilities available for trading on CME Group's platforms and exchange market data in a low-latency environment.

"Since we launched CME Co-Location Services last year, customers from around the world have been moving their trading infrastructure to our state-of-the-art data center in Aurora, attracted by the reliable and high-speed connections," said Craig Mohan, managing director of Co-Location and Data Center Services at CME Group.  "We're furthering our commitment to give customers what they need by working with Verizon to invest in our infrastructure."

The new Aurora-to-Carteret, N.J., route offers very high speed transmissions with ultra-low latency as low as 14.997 milliseconds round-trip, one of the fastest speeds in the industry.  Leveraging the latest optical technology from Ciena, the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, and Verizon's buildout of a dedicated high-speed VFN service node into the Aurora data center, CME Group customers can exchange large files of critical and sensitive market data, quickly and reliably.  The Verizon Premier Low Latency service features full network monitoring and management for both latency and availability.

"Milliseconds matter in today's trading environment," said Chandan Sharma, global managing director of financial services marketing with Verizon Enterprise Solutions.  "Working with CME Group, we've collaborated to build a direct, secure and ultra-fast path that gives companies even faster access to the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace."

The new service is part of the Verizon Financial Network, which is used by many of the world's largest financial services companies to collaborate with customers and partners, consolidate market access, distribute services and information, and execute pre-trade, trade and post-trade transactions within a secure, resilient and low-latency environment. For more information on Verizon's capabilities for the financial services industry, visit http://www.verizonenterprise.com/us/Industry/finance/.

Verizon Enterprise Solutions creates global connections that generate growth, drive business innovation and move society forward.  With industry-specific solutions and a full range of global wholesale offerings provided over the company's secure mobility, cloud, strategic networking and advanced communications platforms, Verizon Enterprise Solutions helps open new opportunities around the world for innovation, investment and business transformation.  Visit www.verizonenterprise.com to learn more.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 98 million retail connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with nearly $116 billion in 2012 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 183,400.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon