Rumors-90% sure

[Red Dawg]

Has any one else heard that Verizon will be starting the FIOS installation in Sarasota and Polk Counties in the Tampa bay area. VZ wants to go all the way to EMBARK areas.

[Mark]

I know Verizon is getting out of the landline biz so I did some searching and remember finding this in the process - if you are interested.

Verizon FiOS Growth Slowing Down
Telco also continues to lose DSL subscribers
10:29AM Tuesday Jan 26 2010 by Karl Bode
tags: dsl · Fiber · competition · business · bandwidth · telco · Verizon FIOS · Verizon Online DSL
Verizon this morning released their fourth quarter earnings report, and while things continue to be rosy on the wireless front, Verizon's facing a significant slowdown in wireline services. According to big red, the company added 2.2 million wireless customers last quarter, for a grand total of 91.2 million wireless subscribers. Verizon still posted a loss for the fourth quarter, caused by a $3 billion charge for layoffs related to the company's slowly dying residential voice business.


After solid FiOS growth in the first half of 2009, things are slowing down for Verizon rapidly. Verizon added just 153,000 new FiOS customers, for a grand total of 3.4 million total FiOS Internet customers and 2.9 million total FiOS TV customers. Wireline operating revenue for the fourth quarter dropped by 3.9% from last year to $11.5 billion. Like most telcos, Verizon continues to bleed copper voice customers, but they're also losing their DSL subscribers (some intentionally).

Despite the company's quarterly reshuffling of DSL promotions, Verizon still lost 107,000 DSL subscribers last quarter, as customers either upgraded to FiOS -- or migrated to cable bundles in markets Verizon's not yet interested in upgrading.

"Our fourth-quarter earnings reflect costs to re-size and simplify our wireline business," says CEO Ivan Seidenberg in a prepared statement. "This transformation is realigning our wireline cost structure, improving productivity, and focusing resources on sales of FiOS and strategic business services."

2009 saw Verizon cut about 13,000 jobs, or roughly 9% of its work force. According to Verizon executives, they expect about the same number of layoffs this year. Verizon ended 2009 with 222,927 employees. There will be roughly 11,000 fewer employees once Verizon gets done offloading 4.8 million phone and 1 million broadband connections in 14 states to Frontier Communications.

As we recently noted, it looks like Verizon's going to put any additional FiOS deployment on hold until they see higher take rates in markets where FiOS already exists. Seidenberg says he'd like to see 40% penetration in existing markets (a lofty goal), and we've heard from several sources that Verizon's all but halted new FiOS TV franchise negotiations. In other words, if you didn't get FiOS during Verizon's initial $24 billion FiOS push, you may be left waiting for some time.

[ProfessionalLocator]

Verizon FIOS is going to vary in what it offers from government jurisdiction to government jurisdiction.

Verizon wants to offer phone, internet and CATV through it's FIOS system. In some jurisdictions they have not gotten permission to offer CATV.
In these areas they advertise CATV service through their FIOS "program" which turns out to be their contract with Dish Network. So in these areas the customer gets a satellite dish instead of the TV coming in through the FIOS.

The satellite TV system quality varies greatly and in some areas people find the reception very poor. So they do not stay with FIOS and go back to local CATV hard line companies.

The neighbors hear how bad the Verizon FIOS / Satellite service is and do not sign up.

Will Verizon FIOS coem to that area? Who knows. There is often the situation of simple momentum. They started this system and to stop it would be to say "hey,
I made a big mistake" which in a carrier killing move.

Still Verizon is trying to go ahead with their FIOS program by identifying customer dense areas and concentrating on them. I know they tried to get FIOS conversion in Charles County, Maryland. But they wanted to offer FIOS only to the most densely populated area and give no commitment to install FIOS in the remainder of the county.

We may still see Verizon FIOS installations which in the slow economy is a boost in areas where ticket load has dropped off.

In areas where the ticket load has kept up the FIOS crews are nightmare. They often hire subcontractors who install the cable fast and dirty. Big crews of guys that do not speak English and can install thousands of feet a day.

[sprayandpray]

Verizon stopped installation in a couple of ATT areas around Dallas this past Fall. We were told it was because they were having a technical problem with the 911 service not working after a certain distance from their CO? They seem to be running about the same pace in installing VIOS in their own areas.

[ProfessionalLocator]

I have family in the Tampa area and so far they have heard nothing. But they are not in the industry and not listening for it.

[FiosKing]

fios project is currently shut down in many states due to cost of damages ect... alot of problems with the electric companies... no news for FL or the tampa area

[locator1]

I locate in the Lakeland Florida area,I get some small Fios projects here and there.That is about it as far as fios goes.