Earlier this year, Verizon made clear what many industry watchers had known for years — that it was reaching the end of its first major buildout phase of Verizon FiOS service and that the company was going to focus on getting customers onto that network. But more than a dozen mayors, including the presumed future mayor of Comcast’s home city, have written the company to ask that it bring much-needed competition to their markets. [More]
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New Jersey Mayors “Concerned” That Verizon FiOS Buildout Seems To Be Skipping The Low-Income Areas
By 9.15.15
New Jersey and Verizon are once again at odds over promises the telecom behemoth has made to bring FiOS service to the whole state. Unlike the last time Verizon and New Jersey had a stand-off over a promise to bring broadband, this contract is not twenty years old, or even ten. This agreement is a lot newer — and Verizon’s apparent way of weaseling out of meeting it a lot more subtle. [More]
Experimental Verizon FiOS Service Would Be 10X Speed Of Google Fiber
By 8.13.15
With Google Fiber continuing to expand, offering gigabit broadband service for a reasonable price, some Internet service providers are feeling the heat and beginning to test networks that would blow the pants of Google. [More]
Judge Says Cablevision Must Stop Running Ads Calling Verizon A “Liar”
By 8.12.15
It’s not uncommon to see a cable provider commercial that pokes fun at or attempt to disprove a competitor for their claims of being the faster, less expensive, or just plain better option. But there’s one less lineup of such ads you’ll be seeing on your TV, as a judge ruled this week that Cablevision must stop running its ads that essentially call Verizon a “liar” regarding claims that it had the fastest wireless network. [More]
Verizon: “People Are Going To Look Back And Laugh” At NJ Customers Worried About Their Copper Landlines
By 8.11.15
Copper wire might seem old-fashioned now, but after a hundred-year run of it being the way to get telephone service, you can imagine why consumers are attached to it. But still, there are indeed many good reasons for upgrades to be taking place. There are good arguments to be made for explaining to anxious consumers how change can benefit them — but mocking them simply for wanting their needs met is not one of those. [More]
Cable Companies Refuse To Reveal How Much They Make Off Of Set-Top Boxes
By 7.31.15
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachussetts and Sen. Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut recently posed a handful of questions to the nation’s cable and satellite providers about their set-top boxes — Are they required? How many customers have them? Is there an option for customers to purchase their own? etc. While some providers were more transparent in their responses than others, there was one thing they all agreed on: We’re not telling you how much we make from leasing these devices. [More]
Verizon’s Refusal To Repair Landline Service Leaves Elderly Man Without Phone For Months
By 7.30.15
While plenty of Americans rush to acquire the latest and greatest in new telecom technology, there are some that only need the basic phone service they’ve had for decades. But as we’ve seen on multiple occasions recently, a number of traditional landline users are being left out in the cold as Verizon tries to transition customers away from copper line service and to fiberoptic phone lines. And for one elderly New Yorker, Verizon’s apparent inflexibility resulted in months of having absolutely no service at all. [More]
Verizon Makes HBO Now Available To FiOS Customers
By 7.29.15
Since the spring launch of HBO Now, the streaming service that allows you to get HBO content without having to pay for a cable TV package, New York-based Cablevision was the only pay-TV/broadband provider selling subscriptions directly to its customers. Now the folks at Verizon have seen that there’s money to be made from people who want TV but don’t want cable, and is making HBO Now available for its FiOS and other broadband customers. [More]
Want ESPN Without Having To Buy Other Channels? Maybe In A Few Years
By 7.27.15
As some cable and live-streaming services take a step back from offering costly sports-filled channels in their bundles, the parent company of the biggest sports network on cable is looking at other ways to continue its dominance, namely by selling direct to consumers. [More]
City Asks For Fiber Network Help, 5 Years After Being Left At Altar By Verizon FiOS
By 7.23.15
Back in 2009, it looked liked Alexandria, VA, residents would get a new high-speed Internet option in the form of Verizon FiOS. The city even went through the bureaucratic process of issuing Verizon a franchise. Then the D.C.-area community got dumped at the altar by Big V and has been looking for someone, anyone to step in ever since. [More]
Verizon Tells Another Customer To Switch To Fiber Or Lose Landline Service
By 7.9.15
Even though his landline service was working fine, a man in Virginia was recently told by Verizon that he had two weeks to switch to the company’s fiberoptic service or lose his account altogether. [More]
Verizon Threatens To Disconnect NJ Landline Customer Unless They Switch To Fiber
By 7.1.15
Copper wire is expensive and old-fashioned. Phone companies don’t want to maintain or use it anymore. Still, some customers like their reliable old land-lines, and the law creates certain obligations for phone companies to provide and maintain them. But Verizon is apparently so sick and tired of providing plain old telephone service that they’re threatening to disconnect customers who don’t “voluntarily” upgrade to fiber A.S.A.P. [More]
New York City Audit Calls Out Verizon For Failure To Build Out FiOS Network As Promised
By 6.19.15
Verizon is pretty much over this whole “FiOS” thing. They still support their existing networks, of course, but they’re pretty much done building out new ones. That, however, does not sit well with the city of New York, which is still waiting for Verizon to finish the city-wide build they promised to have done by last year. [More]
Verizon Knows More About What You Watch On FiOS Than You Do
By 5.29.15
Verizon isn’t a cable company. Its FiOS product doesn’t spring from decades of guaranteed local monopolies, which means most FiOS customers can, if they get annoyed enough, jump ship to a competitor. But you leaving is bad news for Verizon. They want to keep their subscribers. And they have an enormous mountain of highly personalized data on hand to try to do it with. [More]
Cablevision Sues Verizon Over FiOS Ads, Claims Verizon’s Touted All-Fiber Network Actually Isn’t
By 5.20.15
Most of the country doesn’t have much competition for broadband services. But in some of New York City’s boroughs, particularly Brooklyn and the Bronx, Cablevision and Verizon FiOS fight head to head for residential customers. The battle between the two is often ugly, and with a new lawsuit filed yesterday, it just got uglier. [More]
Verizon FiOS Sued Over No-ESPN-Included “Custom TV” Cable Packages
By 4.27.15
Just about every basic cable package in the U.S. includes ESPN whether you want it or not. This is because the popular sports network’s contract generally forbids pay-TV providers from putting ESPN on a separate sports tier. But Verizon FiOS recently introduced “Custom TV,” a programming package that doesn’t necessarily include ESPN, and now the telecom giant is being sued by the sports network for breach of contract. [More]
Disney Pulls Ads For Verizon’s ESPN-Less Cable Package
By 4.23.15
Earlier this week, Verizon FiOS began offering customers a new way to choose which cable channels they pay for, by allowing them to pay for a small base package of core channels and then pay to add on niche-targeted bundles of 10-17 channels each. This didn’t sit well with ESPN, the most expensive channel on just about everyone’s pay-TV lineup, and ESPN’s corporate overlords at Disney are reportedly refusing to air ads for FiOS’s new offering. [More]
Verizon’s ESPN-Not-Included FiOS Base Package Violates Contract, Says Sports Network
By 4.20.15
Last week, Verizon announced a new way to purchase its FiOS pay-TV service: Pay as little as $55/month for a core package of basic channels and then add on niche-targeted bundles of 10-17 channels each for an additional charge. One of the biggest differences between this model and the standard basic/premiumc cable offerings is that ESPN — the most expensive basic cable channel — was not included in the core package. The folks at the Disney-owned sports network say Verizon may be not be allowed. [More]
