High power single-mode wafer fused 1550 nm VCSELs with an active region based on InGaAs quantum wells are fabricated. An InP-based optical cavity and two AlGaAs/GaAs distributed Bragg reflector heterostructures were grown by molecular-beam epita oy. The current and optical confinements are provided by a lateral-structured buried tunnel junction with <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim ~6~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> diameter and etching depth of ~ 20 nm. The VCSELs demonstrate ~ 3.4 mW single-mode continuous-wave output optical power and a threshold current about 2 mA at 20°C. The output optical power exceeds 1 mW at 70°C. A −3dB modulation bandwidth > 13 GHz is obtained at 20°C. Non-return-to-zero data transmission under back-to-back condition of ~ 37 Gbps is shown.