Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may be concentrating its FiOS expansion efforts on the existing communities where it currently has established video franchise agreements, but a Buffalo, N.Y.-based community group believes the telco is deliberately ignoring them.
Don't Pass Buffalo, a community group made up of community leaders and civil rights activists, points out that Verizon already provides FiOS triple play voice, video and data package to a number of surrounding communities, including Amherst, Tonawanda, Kenmore, Orchard Park, Lackawanna, West Seneca and Hamburg.
The group argues that Verizon has overlooked Buffalo, a city that is home to various minorities, in favor of more affluent communities.
"Taken together, the suburban areas where Verizon has built are higher-income and have a lower percentage of Black or Latino residents than the City of Buffalo," said the Don't Bypass Buffalo group in a statement.
John Bonomo, a Verizon spokesman, said that the telco has not filed paperwork to obtain a video franchise in Buffalo, adding that it has 182 TV franchises throughout the state, "reaching all demographic categories."
At this point, Bonomo could not confirm when Verizon would bring FiOS to Buffalo, a city where customers want another choice besides the dominant cable operator Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).
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