Verizon fell short on 22,422 homes with FIOS, Philly says
Verizon Communications Inc. fell short on its FiOS high-speed internet, phone and pay-TV rollout in Philadelphia by 22,422 single-family homes, the city said Monday.
Verizon and the city government had agreed in 2009 that the telecommunications company would put all Philadelphia homes on the FiOS grid by February 2016 as part of a sweeping citywide franchise that would bring competition for pay-TV and fast internet to Comcast Corp.'s headquarters town. Though Verizon has laid out the fiber transmission lines through neighborhoods, individual homeowners must arrange to have FiOS connected to their dwellings.
In addition, the city said Monday, 79,210 condos and apartments could not order FiOS services by the February deadline because Verizon said it had been denied access to the buildings.
The numbers indicate that about 15 percent of the housing units in the city, either apartments, condos or single-family homes, do not have access to Verizon's newest services.
Philadelphia expects Verizon to expand FiOS access to those 22,422 homes and to 12,447 condos or apartments, thus leaving 66,763 condos or apartments, about 10 percent of the city's housing units, without FiOS because the company could not obtain access to the premises.
Charles Brennan, the city's chief innovation officer, said Monday that Verizon "did a very good job. The city's desire is to help FiOS build out because we want the competition in the city." He added that Verizon is committed to 100 percent FiOS in the city where it can obtain permits and access from landlords.
In some cases, access was denied by the landlords because of existing building-wide contracts with other providers, such as Comcast.
The areas with the least access include parts of Center City, perhaps because of the difficulty of rewiring those neighborhoods for fiber, Brennan noted.
Philadelphia reached its conclusion on the FiOS rollout after examining corporate documents and conducting a survey of city residents over the summer. Many of those who complained lived in apartments or condos, Brennan said.
Verizon spokesman John O'Malley said the telecom company and the city were working "together to complete the build. We are still working out a timetable."
O'Malley said there had been a "backlog of permits" in February at the time of the deadline.
To settle issues with the city, Verizon agreed to donate $350,000 to expand "digital inclusion efforts" for low-income children, the city said. Philadelphia has one of the widest digital divides, or percentages of poor children without access to the internet, among U.S. cities.
Verizon spent billions of dollars upgrading its copper lines to fiber, which it brands as FiOS. But the company also has retrenched in the FiOS expansion in recent years as it has concentrated its assets in its wireless business.