Verizon plans to deploy its all-fiber-optic network all the way to customers' homes and businesses in areas east of Gresham along Highway 26 and across the Columbia River in Clark County, Washington. The company said it will extend the network this year to the communities of Damascus, Happy Valley and Sunnyside, as well as Camas and Washougal in Washington. It also will continue its network expansion in the Washington County and the east Multnomah communities of Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview and Wood Village, as well as McMinnville in Yamhill County.
A total of 48,000 additional homes will be connected to the network, which delivers
FiOS Internet service at download speeds of up to 30 mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds of up to 15 mbps, along with crystal-clear voice and more than 250 channels and 10,000 on-demand titles from
FiOS TV. Below are the numbers of households in each community that will be added to the network:
Community Households
Beaverton 3,200
Sunnyside/Damascus Area 13,500
McMinnville 6,800
Forest Grove 1,900
Gresham Area 7,000
Tigard 3,800
Tualatin 1,300
Other 500
Camas/Washougal 10,000
Total 48,000
The network, known as fiber to the premises, or FTTP, uses hair-thin strands of fiber and optical electronics to directly link to homes and businesses and replaces the traditional copper-wire connections for voice, high-speed Internet and TV.
Verizon launched its FiOS TV service in Oregon in mid-December, and it is now available to most communities in Washington County, as well as the cities and unincorporated areas near Dundee, Newberg and McMinnville in Yamhill County.
The company is currently negotiating with the Mount Hood Cable Commission to secure a video franchise agreement so it can offer FiOS TV this year to the communities of Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview and Wood Village.
More than 8.5 million homes and businesses in parts of 16 states are now passed by Verizon's all-fiber network, and the company expects the network to pass about 18 million premises by the end of 2010. Verizon had 1.3 million FiOS Internet customers and 717,000 FiOS TV customers at the end of the third quarter of 2007.
FiOS Internet service includes: state-of-the-art, wireless broadband home router; Verizon's Surround entertainment portal optimized for high-speed access featuring news, games, streaming video and more; virtually unlimited 2 GB of e-mail capacity with up to 9 e-mail accounts; 24 x 7 live technical support; and 30-day money-back guarantee.
FiOS TV service highlights include:
- FiOS TV Premier, the lead offer, with more than 250 all-digital channels for $42.99 per month.
- 27 high-definition channels with extraordinary clarity and theater-quality sound.
- A library of more than 10,000 on-demand titles, 60 percent of which are free.
- Channels grouped by genres such as entertainment, sports, news, shopping, movies and family, making it easy for audiences to find their favorite programming.
- An interactive media guide that helps customers quickly and easily find and enjoy content from TV listings, video-on-demand catalogs and digital video recorders as well as personal music and photos from a home network.
- Set-top boxes ranging from a standard-definition box for $4.99 per month to the Home Media DVR, featuring a multi-room DVR that enables up to three simultaneous viewings of recorded programs without requiring customers to set up a complex home network or buy extra equipment. The recorder is bundled with Media Manager, a new feature that lets customers easily access photos and music from their PCs and play them on their televisions. Home Media DVR is $19.99 per month.
- FiOS TV Widgets, a free interactive feature that provides local weather and traffic information while customers are watching their favorite shows.
FiOS TV also features diverse entertainment in a variety of languages. Spanish-speaking viewers can choose La Conexion, a package of nearly 140 popular English and Spanish-language channels for $32.99 per month, or a Spanish-language package for $11.99 per month. Verizon also offers 14 international premium channels in languages such as Chinese, French, Italian, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese.
FiOS Internet and FiOS TV service begin at prices as low as $42.99 each per month, with additional discounts available for bundled service and one- or two-year agreements.
Consumers can visit
http://www.verizonfios.com or
http://www.verizon.com/fiostv to find out if FiOS TV and FiOS Internet service are available at their residence.