Verizon Fios
Verizon is making headway with its fiber-to-the-home network Fios, the company said during its second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
Verizon plans to spend $20 billion over the next several years to build a fiber-optic network that reaches directly to the side of its customers’ homes. Over that period, it expects to make access to the network, called Fios, available to 60 percent to 70 percent of its current customer base.
Fios is Verizon’s best hope of competing with cable companies, which are now offering voice services as part of a “triple play” bundle that also includes television service and Internet access. Comcast, the largest cable operator in the country, reported during its second-quarter earnings call that it has added 306,000 customers to its telephony service.
In effort to compete for the triple-play customer, Verizon is offering Fios TV service & Fios HD Serivce. The company said it made significant progress during the second quarter in securing the local franchise agreements necessary to deliver the TV service. Fios TV is now available in 60 markets across seven states. After only three months in a market, Verizon reported, it had signed up on average about 7 percent of available customers. After six months, it averages about 10 percent of the available market, the company said.
