PolicyBlog

Our guest blogger today is David E. Young, Vice President, Verizon Federal Regulatory Affairs.  See the end of the post for his impressive bio - CZ.There seems to be some confusion around Verizon’s filing suggesting that the FCC keep a baseline definition for broadband as 768 kbps down and 200 kbps up. The implication here is that we want to keep the speed set low so we won’t have to upgrade our networks.   From where we stand, this is clearly absurd. Verizon is deploying the country’s most... Read More

Free Wi-Fi service from Verizon for millions of FiOS Internet and High Speed Internet (HSI) customers is available now, we have announced.  The new service is available at thousands of hotspots around the country at no extra charge for qualified Verizon broadband customers.  More details are on the Verizon At Home blog... Read More

Since PolicyBlog is supposed to be about, well, policy, we think it makes some sense to launch a new blog devoted to Verizon products and services like FiOS called “Verizon at Home” and I invite you to take a look.    And, yes, we look forward to hearing your ideas for how we can make things better as well as letting you know about the latest things going on here.   This morning, we have details on Verizon FiOS TV Widget Bazaar which (for now) includes Widgets for Facebook and Twitter as well... Read More

If there was any doubt that the role of broadband in American life is at a tipping point, consider this:  Home buyers are more interested in whether a home has an all-fiber-optic Internet hookup than whether there’s a community pool. Or a daycare center.  Or a nearby convenience store. In new surveys just reported, even people who have never had a fiber link rank an ultra-fast connection tops out of five key options. This news tells us two things: First, Internet hookups really matter inside... Read More

More FiOS HD?  Yes, it’s for real.  Verizon FiOS TV is getting six new HD channels – and we’re letting readers of this blog know about it first. We’re launching HD channels from Viacom – MTV, VH1, CMT (Country Music Television), Nickelodeon, Spike TV, and Comedy Central.  They’ll be available in all FiOS TV markets by the end of next week.  This is most-watched content and it’ll be even more popular in HD. Depending on the number of local and regional HD channels available in your market,... Read More

If you’ve been a Verizon FiOS Internet customer for the past several years, you know that we’ve continued to offer you faster speeds.  In 2004 when we launched FiOS Internet, our entry level download speed was 5 Mbps, and the upload speed was 2 Mbps.  Fast forward to June 2008, when we made 50/20 Mbps available to all FiOS customers. There’s no doubt we’ve transformed the market for high-speed broadband services in the United States, and cable has had to play catch-up.  Yet cable’s response has... Read More

Competition is great for consumers, but for Comcast, it must be intimidating.  How else to explain the over-the-top propaganda campaign Comcast has mounted against Verizon?  We have demanded that Comcast “cease and desist” from this unfair, untruthful and illegal advertising.  Comcast cares, we keep hearing, but a series of new Comcast ads demonstrates conclusively that Comcast does not care about getting accurate information to consumers. In these ads, Comcast once again tries to convince the... Read More

Recently, we’ve seen a number of high-speed broadband developments that are worth a second look. According to online reports, some Cablevision customers have been surprised to learn that they’ll pay one-time fees to connect to the cable company’s much-discussed 101 Mbps Internet access service.  The fee isn’t mentioned in the press release announcing the service – and it’s a whopper, $300. Cablevision customers will pay a $300 activation fee for the new tier of service.  They also will be... Read More