Initially, the majority of the households eligible for FiOS will be in Palmetto. Verizon is projecting that 4,000 more households will be open for service by year-end, with about half of those in the Palma Sola community, as Verizon completes the necessary construction and engineering activities to expand availability. While FiOS has been available to other areas largely in the middle and southern portions of Manatee County, today's announcement marks the first expansion into northwestern parts of the county.
"Consumers in Palmetto and Palma Sola are really going to enjoy having the option of choosing the fiber advantage for their TV, Internet and voice needs," said John Ferrell, Verizon's senior vice president and general manager for the Southeast region. "Existing customers routinely tell us that FiOS is a superior product that puts them at the leading edge of technology, right in their home. We now offer FiOS to a wide area in Manatee County and are working as fast as possible to broaden that availability even more in the months ahead."
To date, Verizon has deployed over 8.85 million feet of fiber in Manatee County and 51 million feet of fiber in its Florida service territory. More than 520,000 households in Hillsborough, Pasco, Sarasota, Manatee and northern Pinellas counties can now order one or more of the FiOS services.
Verizon, providing FiOS services on the nation's most advanced digital all-fiber-optic network, recently had its FiOS Internet service named a winner of PC World Magazine's 100 Best Products of 2007 Awards. The only Internet service to make the prestigious list, Verizon FiOS Internet was ranked fourth on the magazine's roster of what it calls "the finest products and services of the past 12 months," which were selected "based on exemplary design, features, performance and innovation." Additionally, only Verizon's network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes.-Verizon release
