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Bringing Fiber to the MDU:
A Conversation with Verizon Enhanced
Communities’ Eric Cevis
Innovative technologies, marketing strategies and applications are helping
Verizon deploy its FiOS services in multiple dwelling unit buildings.
Verizon Enhanced Communities is the
division of Verizon responsible for deploying
FiOS services to rental apartments,
condos and multi-tenant businesses. By
December 2008, after only three and a
half years of wiring MDUs with its FiOS
services, Verizon had 1 million living
units open for sale – up from 33,000 in
2005 – in buildings ranging from lowincome
housing to luxury condos. Recently
Broadband Properties had the opportunity
to speak with Eric Cevis, the vice president
for Verizon Enhanced Communities,
about the challenges involved in this
rapid and large-scale rollout of triple-play
services to MDUs. Following are excerpts
from that conversation.
Broadband Properties:
The deployment of FiOS in MDUs
has been gathering speed, and
you’ve negotiated some large-scale
agreements with property owners
like Aimco. In the MDU marketplace,
what’s the driving force in terms of
demand Are there specific services
that residents are looking for
Eric Cevis: Most of the excitement is
driven by our FiOS TV offer, maybe because
there hasn’t been a choice in the
market for some time. It’s a combination
of the picture quality, the Interactive Media
Guide (IMG), the video-on-demand
(VoD) offering – more than 14,000 titles,
70 percent of which are free – along with
the 100 or more high-definition channels,
which was a big differentiator for us
in 2008. We’re finding that the video offering
is a pull-through for the voice and
Internet services. When residents see the
Internet service in a bundled offer, with
speeds as high as 50 Mbps downstream
by 20 Mbps upstream (and a symmetrical
offer of 20 Mbps by 20 Mbps, among
others), that has been a game changer for
the marketplace.
Telecommuting is starting to be part of
our conversation with building owners. A lot of
tenants are telling us they’re getting better service
at home with FiOS Internet than on their
corporate LANs!
Learn more about Verizon’s MDU deployment
strategies at the Broadband Summit,
April 27 – 29 in Dallas, Texas.
BBP: So the demand is primarily
for entertainment, rather than
for telecommuting
EC: We’re seeing more and more work-athome
applications, so I wouldn’t suggest
that telecommuting isn’t also driving
Internet sales. In these economic times,
first because of high gas prices and then
because of the need to save money, more
people want to work from home. Some
who have been laid off from their job
and are either seeking work or starting a
home-based business or consulting practice
have the need for our FiOS Internet
service.
Telecommuting is starting to be part
of our conversation with building owners.
A lot of tenants are telling us they’re
getting better service at home with FiOS
Internet than on their corporate LANs!
BBP: Are property owners finding
that FiOS helps them rent or sell
apartments
EC: Yes, they are. I’ve spoken at several
conferences about “technology as an
amenity” – the same way people look
for granite countertops, exercise rooms,
or pools, now they’re asking if buildings
are FiOS-wired. So renters are getting
more value for their money, and owners
are also charging more in rent. A recent
survey by Parks Associates validates our
sense that there is a certain willingness
on the part of tenants to pay a little more
for an apartment wired with Verizon’s
FiOS services.
BBP: How important are services
beyond the triple play
EC: I think we’ll see a lot more of these
– that’s where the future is. We’ve done
some pilot projects in New York, bringing
in new applications that further leverage
residents’ broadband connections.
We’re getting a lot of interest for security
applications, letting residents use
“nannycams” to monitor what’s going on
42 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009