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solution alongside the active equipment
in an Ethernet deployment. “The ADC
equipment takes less space in the central
office, but leaves enough room for
growth – particularly important as we
move toward more fiber and less copper,”
says Tom Eveslage, network operations
manager for Albany Tel.
Today Albany Tel’s network consists
of 85 percent copper lines and 15 percent
fiber lines. Eveslage said those proportions
should be reversed by the end
of this five-year project. Using an active
Ethernet architecture, Albany Tel is deploying
greenfield fiber networks – primarily
in new-home developments – and
also building over existing copper lines.
Network speeds up to 100 Mbps will be
available, ten times faster than Albany
Tel’s current broadband offerings.
Texas-based FTTH provider NTS
Communications selected Razorsight’s
AIM solution to automate its network
cost management functions and provide
related analytic capabilities. In 2008
NTS Communications was acquired by
Xfone; as integration activities began, it
became clear that the companies’ legacy
cost management solutions could not accurately
manage their combined assets.
The Web-based AIM solution allows
NTS to achieve the balance of internal
staff, systems and third-party providers
that will minimize its network costs.
NTS chief operating officer Brad Worthington
says the software is a scalable
solution that will help the company accommodate
the growth it expects. BBP
RBOC
UPDATE
FiOS to Inaugurate Service in Washington, DC
Verizon came a step closer to launching FiOS services in
the District of Columbia when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty
approved the company’s cable franchise. One more step
still remains – a Congressional review. As part of the 15-year
agreement, Verizon will make FiOS TV available throughout
the District over the next nine years. The first residents will be
able to order FiOS TV within a year.
In New York City, Verizon has expanded FiOS to additional
areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, making good on its
Even in a down economy,
Verizon’s added more FiOS
customers than ever before,
boosting the company’s
earnings per share.
pledge to build out the network to half a million homes by the
end of 2008 (and eventually to make FiOS available to the entire
city). Door-to-door marketing and other presales activities have
been taking place in all of these neighborhoods in preparation
for the introduction of FiOS TV. Verizon also opened a retail
store in Staten Island, another borough of New York City.
Despite its recent focus on big cities, Verizon isn’t neglecting
the suburbs and smaller cities where it first started its FiOS
project. In the last month it gained franchise approvals in communities
in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and
began rolling out video services in new communities in those
three states as well as in California.
Verizon also announced that FiOS TV now provides 100
or more channels of high-definition (HD) television in every
market where the TV service is offered, and that FiOS TV
customers can now control their Home Media DVRs remotely,
either online or via certain Verizon Wireless handsets. BBP
Verizon Reports Record Growth
in FiOS Customers for 4Q08
Verizon reported surprisingly strong earnings for
the fourth quarter – actually bettering 4Q07 by some
measures – driven by customer and revenue growth.
“Verizon has shown that it is able to compete effectively
in this economic environment,” Chairman and
CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in announcing the financial
results. “The Verizon story in 2008 was one of customer
growth and product innovation, based on the
strategic technology and broadband infrastructure
investments we have made year after year.”
One of those strategic infrastructure investments
is the company’s fiber-to-the-premises network. Verizon
Wireline reported record growth in the number of
new customers for FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.
FiOS TV FiOS
Internet
Net adds 4Q08 303,000 282,000
Net adds 4Q07 226,000 244,000
Year-end data:
Total customers 2008 1.9 million 2.5 million
Total customers 2007 0.9 million 1.5 million
Penetration rate 2008 20.8% 24.9%
Penetration rate 2007 16.0% 20.7%
Premises marketed 2008 9.2 million 10 million
Premises passed at year-end 2008: 12.7 million, or
40% of total Verizon landline footprint.
ARPU for FiOS customers at year-end 2008: $133
per month.
16 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009