New York City is suing Verizon over allegedly failed promises to bring fiber Internet access to every household in the city by mid-2014. Verizon has disputed the claim.
Critics have pointed out to the press Verizon is not even abiding by terms of the initial contract with the city, since more than a million homes still without access to FiOS. The 2008 contract signed by the city and Verizon gave the telecom company a citywide franchise in exchange for it completing a universal rollout of its FiOS service by mid-2014. That meant extending it to an estimated 3.1 million homes, but to date only 2.2 million can access it.
While technically the original agreement only extended to cable TV, FiOS can also be used for fiber-based internet connections, and as a result Verizon’s slow timetable has left many people in city with poor internet access. The dispute claims that Verizon actively ignored requests from some consumers to install FiOS in their buildings.
Verizon stated that some building owners refused to give it access to the required infrastructure for installing such services and that it has upheld its end of the contract “100 percent,” as per ArsTechnica.
Plus the city and and Verzion are fight over the definition of what constitutes available access. Verzion believes as long as fiber is close enough to a building, it could technically be installed there within a reasonable time, so it is therefore “available.”
Verzion now has pledged to invest a further billion dollars in NYC fiber infrastructure over the next four years and has promised once again to extend FiOS access to all New Yorkers by 2021.
