Verizon Communications Inc. announced a three-year minimum purchase agreement with Corning Inc. to provide fiber optic cable and associated hardware to ensure critical coverage and capacity for Verizon’s nationwide wireless broadband network.

The agreement calls for Verizon to purchase up to 20 million kilometers (12.4 million miles) of optical fiber each year from 2018 through 2020, with a minimum purchase commitment of $1.05 billion.

Verizon has been reinventing its network architecture around a next-generation fiber platform that will support all of the company's businesses. This new architecture is designed to improve Verizon's 4G LTE coverage, speed the deployment of 5G and deliver high-speed broadband to homes and businesses of all sizes. In an initial deployment, Verizon launched One Fiber in Boston in 2016 and plans to invest $300 million over six years to deploy it throughout the city.

Over the past several months, Corning has announced plans to expand capacity and to invest more than $250 million in its optical fiber, cable and solutions manufacturing facilities to help meet the demand of its global carrier and enterprise customers. Corning expects these capacity expansions to begin to come online in 2017 and become fully operational in 2018.