Verizon Communications is launching bundled phone, data and video services [defunct link] using “fiber to the premises” technology in Keller, Texas. They plan to expand services to one million homes in nine states by the end of this year and another two million homes next year.
The late 1990s saw fiber optics backbones being built all over the nation, but little of that capacity was directly connected to homes and businesses and most fiber has remained dark. With Verizon’s initial US$1 Billion investment to solve this last mile problem, we could be seeing the resurrection of all that fiber. Their initial service will offer Internet connection speeds up to 30 mbps. The leap in speed is staggering, considering that the top cable Internet speed is currently 3 mbps. Verizon will launch video services sometime next year and then they hope to leapfrog cable and satellite competitors by offering more HDTV channels and interactive capabilities.