Stories like one from Reuters this week out of NXTcomm are being interpreted by some as signaling a new direction for Verizon’s FiOS project.  That’s wrong.  Verizon’s FiOS project is going full steam ahead, and we continue to believe that fiber all the way to our customers is simply the best broadband solution.  Verizon COO Denny Strigl reiterated our commitment to FiOS and fiber optics at NXTcomm as I mentioned here.

I was there for the interview that led to the Reuters story, and absolutely nothing Mark Wegleitner said suggested that Verizon has doubts about our fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) approach.  (Anyone who knows Mark knows such a suggestion is extremely unlikely.  As so many are aware, Mark was an early advocate of FTTP, was committed to it from the start, and remains so.)

The discussion was about what Verizon might do to deploy broadband after 2010.  We’ve said many times that we will build our FiOS (FTTP) project past 18 million homes in our traditional service area by the end of that year.  Reporter Ritsuko Ando wanted to know what we’ll do after 2010.

From my notes, Mark’s answer came in two parts.  First Mark noted that certainly we will continue to deploy fiber after 2010.  In a quote that got slightly adjusted in the Reuters story, Mark said, “We’ll still be using FTTP.  There is still gas in the engine for FTTP.” (Not “could be.”) I pointed out that we have committed to build FiOS to every part of New York City in a fiber-building project that will take until 2014.

Second, Mark addressed the challenging issue of deploying broadband to rural areas where population density is very light. Mark noted that DSL is certainly part of the solution and Verizon is continuing to deploy more DSL and increasing the DSL speeds we offer.  However, DSL triple play capabilities are limited and would rely on deploying fiber part of the way, building “nodes” and then using DSL to reach customers from there.  It is a complex and expensive approach, especially when the efficiency of the node is compromised by the low density service area.  (Furthermore, one of the great advantages of the FTTP approach is that we don’t need electronics in the field, and we eliminate expense and failure points.)  That leaves wireless alternatives such as direct broadcast satellites and the new 4G mobile technologies like LTE as perhaps better possibilities.  But as of now, technology combinations such as these and the market for them are both unproven.

Meanwhile, we have a lot of work ahead on the existing FiOS project, so we’ll put our energies there and watch developments in both technology and in markets we have not yet reached.

Hopefully, this puts to rest the Web speculation that Verizon is somehow not committed to bringing fiber all the way to as many customers as we can.