Verizon touts FiOS Internet speed upgrades
JANUARY 10, 2007 -- Verizon (search for Verizon) has raised to five the number of states in which FiOS Internet customers can order online connection speeds of up to 50 Mbits/sec downstream and 5 Mbits/sec upstream. The carrier says it plans to match these speeds in other customer locations throughout the year.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island recently joined New York, Connecticut and New Jersey as states where Verizon has increased the maximum connection speed of both its mid-tier and top-tier FiOS Internet services.
The mid-tier maximum connection speed in those markets was increased from 15 Mbits/sec downstream and 2 Mbits/sec upstream to 20/5 Mbits/sec, and the top-tier service was increased from 30/5 Mbits/sec to 50/5 Mbits/sec. The company plans similar FiOS Internet speed increases this year in some of the 11 other states where the service is available. Specifics will be announced at a later date.
Speaking at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Brian Whitton, executive director of access network design and integration for Verizon Telecom, said, "Today's digital family relies on an increasing number of consumer electronics for their communication, their entertainment and their overall productivity. Digital cameras, high-def TV, remote-monitored home security, wireless networks, online multiplayer gaming systems, telecommuting connections, MP3 players, multiple PCs, and more are increasingly commonplace at home. Broadband is the powerful thread that optimizes these devices and ties them all together.
"Our ability to deliver increasingly higher broadband connection speeds to customers illustrates the real benefits of deploying fiber optics all the way into customers' homes," Whitton continued. "Only Verizon is creating a 'future-proof' network with the headroom to quickly and efficiently accommodate customers' growing needs for more speed to maximize their digital experiences."
More than 6 million homes and businesses in parts of 16 states are now passed by Verizon's all-fiber network, and the company expects its new network to pass about 18 million premises by the end of 2010. Verizon had 522,000 FiOS Internet customers across 16 states at the end of the third quarter of 2006. The company also delivers its all-digital FiOS TV service over the network in parts of 10 states.
FiOS Internet service is offered in more than 1,600 communities across parts of all 16 states where the company's new network is deployed: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. The company currently offers FiOS TV service in parts of 10 states: California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.
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