Verizon Nearing End Of FiOS Expansions

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Still hoping to see your address show as being available for a Verizon FiOS installation? Well, for those that are not yet able to get a FiOS install, it looks like it may be a very long wait. According to recent reports, Verizon is bringing the roll out to a halt and are instead focusing on finishing up the areas where they have already secured franchises.

For example, Verizon still has a franchise in areas like Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City and the work will continue in those areas. However other areas, even the city of Baltimore, which is relatively close to the District of Columbia will not be as lucky. They were also said to have stopped negotiations to wire Alexandria, Virginia (another close suburb of Washington DC).

The main reasoning behind bringing the new area expansion to a halt is simply due to the cost of rolling out the network. Its said to cost Verizon “thousands of dollars to connect a home.”

As it stands Verizon was the only major phone provider in the US that had fiber all the way to the home. That said, other companies such as AT&T are running fiber, however they run fiber to the street and then rely on copper lines to take it that remaining short distance to the home. Sadly though, the use of cooper also limits the potential speeds available. And as I am sure many people would agree, one of the major benefits of using FiOS is the potential for decent speeds both up and down stream. But even with that, the cable companies have also been making a push and increasing the available speeds by offering upgraded modems.

Despite the fact that Verizon will likely have some disappointed potential customers, the move to halt the expansion into new and yet un-francished areas sounds like it will be good news for some — namely the cable companies.

But in the end, the plans to stop moving into new areas is not in anyway a poor reflection on Verizon. According to their plans they wanted to have FiOS available to 18 million households by the end of the year, and as of now it looks like they are on track to beat that goal.