story category So, Is This Where Verizon’s FiOS Deployment Ends?
16th March 2010
According to Verizon, the company is taking a contemplative pause to focus on marketing the service to areas that are already deployed.
But according to long-time industry analyst Dave Burstein, Verizon’s essentially cutting and running on additional deployment plans, leaving a very large chunk of their footprint on last-generation DSL and copper-based voice networks.
Burstein tells Broadband Reports that he doesn’t see Verizon expanding any further (with the exception of major cities where they’ve signed franchise agreements) unless they get money from Uncle Sam (aka, taxpayers). “They want to get on the gravy train, although I think the new, less competitive leadership is the primary explanation,” says Burstein when asked why Verizon’s shifting tactics. Seidenberg, the driving force behind the first wave of FiOS, is on his way out — and his replacements aren’t quite as bullish on angering investors for the sake of this whole “future” thing.