“The bandwidth requirements for broadband will change drastically in the years ahead,” said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon’s Chairman & CEO, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XIII Conference in New York. While conceding that there are DSL upgrade technologies that might be a good fits for the next 2 to 3 years, Seidenberg said only fiber provides the upgradeable bandwidth to really change the game over the long term. Seidenberg argued that it is not really true that FTTN costs $300 per subscriber and FTTP is $1,300, because the financial proposition varies by market. Furthermore, he said the new fiber architecture is really as much about transforming Verizon as a company as it is about rebuilding the network. Seidenberg believes that once the transformation is complete, investors will look at the company very differently than they would a traditional RBOC. Verizon plans to pass a million homes with FTTP capacity this year and two million homes next year. http://www.verizon.com
- Earlier this summer, Verizon began offering its “Fios” FTTP service in Keller, Texas and other select locations in California and Florida. Verizon “Fios” will consist of three consumer Internet access tiers: 5 Mbps/2 Mbps for $34.95 a month as part of a calling package, or $39.95 a month stand-alone; 15 Mbps/2 Mbps for $44.95 a month as part of a calling package, or $49.95 a month stand-alone ; 30 Mbps/5 Mbps at pricing to be announced later. Verizon plans a Fios video offering to give consumers an alternative to cable TV in 2005.