Verizon (NYSE: VZ) continued to expand and enhance its wireline and FiOS services in Northeast cities and towns throughout 2014, but the telco has not indicated if it would make fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) investments in any other regions.
Two of the biggest network enhancement initiatives took place in the Virginia and New Jersey markets, where it invested $659 million and $547 million, respectively.
As of the end of 2014, the service provider said that it made FiOS services available to more than 1.35 million homes and businesses in Northern Virginia, Richmond and surrounding areas, as well as the Hampton Roads region. To date, the service provider has laid more than 20,670 miles of fiber to homes and businesses in the state.
The service provider also continued to make progress in converting more of its Virginia customers from copper to fiber. In 2014, the service provider replaced all of the copper facilities in the Hampton Roads community of Ocean View with fiber that's served by its local switching office, for example.
Copper-to-fiber migrations across the company continued to ramp in the first quarter. It migrated 47,000 customers from copper onto fiber, helping it come closer to reaching its 2015 goal of 200,000.
Over in New Jersey, the service provider said that FiOS services are now available to more than 2.1 million homes and businesses across the state. Overall, Verizon has placed over 22,000 miles of fiber cables in New Jersey.
Inside New Jersey, Newark saw the largest investment as the telco installed more than 1.3 million feet of fiber and network infrastructure under and above the streets of Newark, making the company's FiOS services available to more than 135,000 addresses across the city's five wards.
Verizon was no less aggressive in Maryland and Washington, D.C., where it invested $382 million and $92 million, respectively, on each city's fiber-optic and wireline networks.
In Maryland, FiOS made its data and video services available to more than 1.3 million homes and businesses in parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Verizon also placed over 96.3 million feet (or 18,245 miles) of fiber optics in Maryland.
Finally, in Washington, D.C., the service provider's FiOS services reached almost 100,000 homes and businesses. Verizon also placed over 3.7 million feet (or 715 miles) of fiber optics in D.C.
However compelling these network upgrades are, the one thing they have in common is they are focused on serving existing markets where the company has already built out FiOS services. Verizon has maintained that it will not bring FiOS to any new markets.
During the first quarter, Verizon reported that FiOS broadband penetration reached 41.5 percent, compared with 39.7 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2014.
For more:
- see this release
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