Verizon, XO say 96% of the buildings they serve have 2 fiber competitors

Verizon and XO said that their pending marriage will not hinder competition, as the two companies claim that 96 percent of the buildings have at least two fiber providers offering services to businesses.

“In short, the data shows that more than 96 percent of these buildings have at least two fiber competitors in the building, in addition to Verizon and XO, that 98 percent of these buildings have at least one fiber competitor in the building, in addition to Verizon and XO, and that 99 percent of these buildings have at a minimum 2 or more fiber competitors either in the building or within 1,000 meters,” Verizon and XO said in an FCC filing.

Specifically, the two service providers said that a large majority of buildings where they operate businesses have a choice of various service providers to get services like Ethernet and IP-based voice.

“Even in the comparatively few circumstances in which both XO Communications (“XO”) and Verizon have fiber in the same building, there are alternate fiber providers located in and near by those buildings, and thus there is no risk of competitive harm arising from this transaction,” Verizon and XO said.

Per the request from the FCC, XO and Verizon were asked to clarify 30 items related to on-net fiber buildings, interconnection agreements, internet backbone networks and Verizon's plans for XO's existing EoC services.

Verizon and XO said they have provided data that focuses on four key issues: Buildings that XO and Verizon both serve with fiber, the number of competitors that currently have fiber in those buildings, the number of competitors that have fiber within 0.1 miles of those buildings and the number of competitors that have fiber within 1,000 meters of those buildings. 

Within Verizon’s ILEC wireline footprint, the service providers said that XO and Verizon have fiber to the same building in 170 locations. Additionally, 95 percent, or 162 out of 170 in-footprint buildings, have two or more other fiber competitors in the building besides Verizon and XO.

In regards to the remaining 8 buildings, the service providers claim that 6 have at least one other fiber competitor besides Verizon and XO, plus at least one other fiber competitor located within 0.1 miles of the building. 

The two providers said that “nearly 99 percent (168 out of 170 in-footprint buildings) will have at least one fiber competitor in the building and at least one other fiber competitor within 0.1 miles.”

Outside of its footprint, the two providers said that “94 percent (465 out of 494 out-of-footprint buildings) have two or more other fiber competitors in the building” besides Verizon and XO. The companies added that within the 29 remaining buildings "17 have at least one other fiber competitor in the building, in addition to Verizon and XO."

With these 17 buildings, Verizon and XO said that "Eight also have at least one other fiber competitor located within 0.1 miles of the building, and another eight have at least one other fiber competitor located within 1,000 meters of the building."

Besides offering to EoC and fiber, the acquisition has implications for Verizon's upcoming 5G deployments that will leverage millimeter wave wireless bands. Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon will lease XO's LMDS spectrum with an option to buy it before the end of 2018. XO has 102 LMDS licenses in 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands.

For more:
- see this FCC filing (PDF)

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