It's taken the arrival of the nation's biggest telecom company to finally put telco TV on the map.
Verizon this week announced that it has begun installing FTTP (fiber to the curb) technology to replace traditional copper-wire links in Keller, Texas, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, launching what is expected to be the telephony industry's biggest push yet into the video turf dominated by cable and satellite. Verizon is making a multi-year, multi-billion dollar push into the broadband market, which will eventually make way for VoIP services, including video, voice and data.
According to the company, Verizon is the first company to begin using it to directly connect homes and business to its network on a widespread scale. Verizon says it plans to pass about 1 million homes in parts of nine states with FTTP by the end of the year.
"FTTP is moving from field trials and the lab to the real world, and it's happening in Keller first," said Verizon Network Services Group President Paul Lacouture. "This technology will transform our network and the products we will be able to offer to consumers and businesses."
Bob Ingalls, president of Verizon's Retail Marketing Group, said some of the new broadband access products will feature download speeds of 5 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps. The company expects to begin marketing these products in Keller and elsewhere later this year. Verizon, which has already laid more than 440,000 feet of fiber optic cabling throughout Keller neighborhoods, has begun preparatory work for similar FTTP deployments elsewhere in Texas and in several other states.
On a related note, Verizon also announced this week that it would have to scale back its FTTP deployment in New Jersey because the state turned down its request to increase fees to competitors to access its local phone lines.
