Verizon FiOS TV service picks up Falls Church franchise

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http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060124/1219280.html?.v=1


Verizon has nailed down yet another cable television franchise in the Washington area.

The Falls Church City Council has given the go-ahead for Verizon to provide fiber optic service, called FiOS, to boost competition for TV and other services in the city, which has 11,000 potential viewers.

Verizon (NYSW: VZ) has already snagged franchise approvals for Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Herndon and the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. The total potential customer base in those areas is now over 1 million.

The company also has obtained franchises in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Texas. Verizon introduced its FiOS TV service -- with more than 330 digital channels, more than 20 high-definition channels and 1,800 video-on-demand titles -- to consumers in Northern Virginia late last year.

Verizon also has announced FiOS television service in Woburn, Mass., and Massapequa Park on New York's Long Island. FiOS TV is already available in 14 towns in Texas, one in Florida and one in Virginia.

The company hasn't said how many subscribers it has for its TV service so far but did say that 20 percent of the eligible homes in its first market in Keller, a suburb of Dallas, had signed up between the launch on Sept. 22 and the end of the year.

Verizon has been aggressively building out a fiber-optic network in several states to replace its copper wires for telephone and Internet service.

Competitor AT&T, the renamed SBC Communications, has launched its own TV service over fiber-optic cable to a limited number of households in San Antonio, where it is based.

While Verizon's technology is similar to traditional cable service, with the company sending programming through the fiber-optic cables, AT&T has opted for a different method where each set-top box receives a tailored stream of data. That approach appears to have delayed AT&T's deployment.

FiOS TV costs $44.90 a month for a set-top box with a basic lineup of 180 channels, including at least 20 in high definition.

 

[cablewithaview]

Verizon Wins Cable TV Franchise OK, F.C. Now Only In State with 3 Choices

The City of Falls Church has become the only jurisdiction in Virginia with access to three competing cable television services now that its City Council unanimously approved a franchise agreement with Verizon Monday night.

Verizon could begin offering its cable service as early as March with a robust set of offerings that will include every high definition channel available, over 25 as of now. It enters a market now shared by Cox Communications and RCN (formerly Starpower). The 15-year franchise agreement officially goes into effect Feb. 22.

Falls Church also becomes one of the first jurisdictions in the nation to offer a cable television franchise to a traditional telephone company. Through its fiber optic cables that have been placed within proximate reach of every home and building in the 2.2 square mile City of Falls Church, Verizon has already been offering telephone and high-speed data services through its “Fiber to the Premises” program that brings fiber hook-ups directly to individual residences. The television signals will come through the same network.

Since Verizon has already come to a similar franchise agreement with Fairfax County, lighting up its system with the City of Falls Church will also mean the same service will be available to Verizon customers in areas around the city, including Annandale, Sleepy Hollow and McLean.

In the Verizon franchise agreement, which Falls Church City Attorney Roy Thorpe said was sufficiently similar to the existing agreements with Cox and RCN as to represent “a level playing field,” Verizon agrees to pay five percent of gross revenues to the City’s general operating fund, along with an initial $100,000 franchise fee.

It will pay an additional three percent of gross revenues to fund local access television operations to be split between the City schools, the Cable Access Corporation and the City, and will provide two public access channels for the City. In addition, it will supply fiber connections between City municipal facilities and will rewire the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School with new fiber optic cable.

“The entire City is now band width-rich,” said Richard Beville, the chief negotiator for Verizon.

Katherine Fauk, spokesperson for Cox, said she was satisfied that in continuing consultations with the City, her firm’s concerns about the “level playing field” nature of the Verizon agreement “will be ironed out.” Thorpe concurred, noting that if any minor adjustments to the agreement turn out to be needed, that they can be added later.

http://www.fcnp.com/547/verizon.htm