US operator giant Verizon has committed to buy at least 12 million miles of fibre per year for the next three years in a move it hopes will be interpreted as a statement of investment intent.

The total outlay will be at least $1.05 billion with the maker of the glass that protects most of today’s touchscreens. It looks like this is as much a strategic move to ensure the company has enough fibre to support its future ambitions as any kind of major new initiative but that’s not stopping both companies positioning it as an event of earth-shattering significance.

“Our plans identified a shortfall in fibre supply, and Verizon has been working with business teams to forecast demand and fill supply gaps with existing suppliers,” said Viju Menon, Verizon’s Chief Supply Chain Officer. “Securing the required volume of optical fiber and hardware solutions with Corning will ensure we meet our planned rollout schedules.”

“We are pleased that Verizon recognizes the value of Corning’s innovative solutions in deploying next-generation converged optical infrastructure, such as One Fiber, more quickly and cost effectively,” said Clark Kinlin, Corning EVP. “Verizon’s purchase commitment supports necessary capacity investments across our manufacturing footprint.”

So in summary, Verizon has committed to buy a bunch of fibre and… that’s it. Nothing more to see here folks, move along. Sorry to have troubled you, but at least we kept it short. To be fair there are a bunch of other much more exciting stories on Telecoms.com today so hopefully you won’t feel your time has been entirely wasted.