2010 Buyers Guide - Broadband Properties

RBOC
UPDATE
FiOS at Five
Verizon Communications is celebrating the fifth anniversary of
FiOS, the largest fiber-to-the-home network in the United States.
After proving the concept in a pilot project in Texas, Verizon began
deploying FiOS on a large scale in fall 2004. Since that time,
the economies of scale enabled by the FiOS build, together with
Verizon’s pursuit of technical innovation, have been instrumental
in making FTTH deployment faster and more economical
for all providers. Verizon estimates that its deployment costs in
2010 will be only about half of what they were in 2004.
One of the technologies Verizon has pioneered during the
last three years is the use of bend-insensitive fiber in MDU
applications, and it continues adding new fiber products to its
tool kit. Fiber cable vendor OFS recently announced that Verizon
will use its EZ-Bend MDU drop cable, which promises up
to a 500-fold improvement in bending loss performance over
conventional single-mode fiber cables under the tight bends
found in MDU installations.
By the end of September 2009, Verizon served 3.3 million
FiOS Internet customers and 2.7 million FiOS TV customers
in 16 states (about 110,000 of these customers are in the territories
that are being sold to Frontier). FiOS Internet services
were available to 11.5 million premises, and TV services were
available to 10.9 million premises.
Over the past year, the number of customers grew by 49.2
percent for Internet and 67.7 percent for TV – a growth rate
faster than the number of homes marketed. As a result, take rates
have continued to rise; penetration is now at 28.5 percent for
Internet service, compared with 24.2 percent a year earlier, and
24.9 percent for TV, compared with 19.7 percent a year earlier.
Despite the rapid year-over-year growth, the third quarter
was somewhat slower than the second in terms of new customers
added; 198,000 FiOS Internet customers and 191,000 new
FiOS TV customers were added, compared with about 300,000
each in the second quarter. However, construction continued at
a rapid pace, with about 700,000 new premises passed by fiber
(compared with 650,000 in the second quarter), for a total of
14.5 million. The year-end target is 15 million premises passed.
From Suburbs to Cities
Verizon tested FiOS in Keller, Texas, a wealthy suburb of Fort
Worth, and its first commercial rollouts focused on similar
communities. After improving the technology for deploying
fiber in MDUs, Verizon began deploying fiber in large cities.
Winning a video franchise in New York City was a major step
in this transition from suburban to urban deployments; the
company is now building out in several major cities.
Recently, Verizon held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch
the FiOS build in Washington, D.C.; it expects to make services
available in some parts of the city by year-end. It also
debuted FiOS TV in Pittsburgh with more than 600 digital
channels, 122 of them in high definition.
The Evolution of FiOS Services
Since 2004, Verizon has transitioned FiOS from BPON to
GPON technology, introduced faster tiers of Internet service,
launched a video service, added new features such as wholehome
DVR, started its own local television channels, and
made the TV experience interactive with a variety of widgets,
or utility programs accessed from the TV.
This fall, the company introduced the KODAK widget,
which allows users to view photos and slideshows from
Kodak’s online digital photo service on their TV screens. In
the New York metropolitan region, subscribers have access to a
webcam widget showing road conditions. Viewers can zoom in
on specific roads or set favorites to display their regular commutes.
Future New York widget enhancements may include
cultural-event calendars, a taxicab “lost and found” listing,
public transportation schedules, alternate-side parking information
and school closures.
In the future, Verizon plans to make FiOS a control hub for
home systems controlling security, heating and air conditioning
and consumer electronics.
By the end of next year, Verizon should achieve its goal of
passing 18 million homes; it projects that it will achieve Internet
penetration of between 35 and 40 percent and TV penetration
of close to 30 percent. Considering falling deployment costs,
higher-than-expected take rates and rising revenues (average
monthly revenue per residential user for FiOS is more than $137,
about double the revenue for non-FiOS users), many observers
expect the buildout to continue beyond that point. BBP
SPECIAL EARLY BIRD OFFER
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April 26 – 28, 2010
InterContinental Hotel – Dallas
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The Leading Conference on
Broadband Technologies and Services
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com, or call 316-733-9122.
For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649, or visit www.bbpmag.com.
November/December 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 23