A growing number of Verizon customers in the Portland metro area and beyond soon will experience super-fast broadband Internet access as the company expands availability of its Verizon FiOS Internet Service to homes surrounding Portland.

By the end of this year, FiOS (FYE’-ose) will expand to parts of Gresham and Troutdale, east of Portland, while the company continues building its new fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network in Beaverton, Tigard and Hillsboro, and expands it farther to Tualatin, Durham, King City and unincorporated Washington County. The expansion also includes Dundee and Newberg in Yamhill County.

The long wait will soon be over for Lynnfield residents eager for cable-TV competition, thanks to a unanimous Board of Selectmen vote Monday night (March 20) authorizing Verizon to offer its fiber-optic-powered FiOS TV in the town.

Verizon said it will extend its fiber-optic network to a total of 25 of its local service areas in Virginia by the end of 2006, making more than 300,000 households capable of receiving the company's FiOS TV service. The commitment follows the adoption of cable choice legislation signed into law by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on March 10. Verizon said it will provide more details about the build out in the coming months.

Despite running virtually nonstop TV commercials attacking Verizon's efforts to speed choice and competition in New Jersey's cable TV market, two of the nation's largest cable companies are refusing to run a paid TV commercial from Verizon that asks consumers to support video choice. A third cable company did not respond to Verizon's request.

Verizon unveiled FiOS TV in Maryland today to approximately 11,000 Howard County residents in Clarksville, Columbia and Ellicott City - the first communities in the state to receive the company's new fiber-optic video service. Verizon will begin taking customer orders immediately.

Indiana consumers will benefit from competition and greater choice as a result of the overwhelming support by the state's General Assembly that passed a new telecom and video reform legislation signed into law today by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

House Bill 1279 was recently approved in the Indiana Senate by a 42-7 vote, and overwhelmingly passed in the Indiana House by a 78-18 vote for concurrence.

People who live in apartments, condos and co-ops are the next wave of customers who could enjoy the benefits of Verizon's fiber-optic, all-the-way-to-the-customer technology. Verizon will aggressively pursue agreements to bring FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services this year to these customers, nationwide.

Residents of the Huntington Landmark adult community can now enjoy the most advanced calling, Internet -- and, ultimately, entertainment -- services in the market today, delivered over an all-fiber optic-network installed by Verizon.

The agreement calls for Huntington Landmark to allow Verizon to market within the community various bundles of calling, data and TV services including Internet access speeds of from up to 5 to up to 30 megabits per second (Mbps) and future entertainment choices that can include more than 22 high-definition TV channels, the most available from any provider.

The first customers in Hillsborough County can now get Verizon FiOS TV, with amazingly sharp pictures and sound and offering a true choice for subscription television and On Demand programming, via the company's all-digital, fiber-optic network. Verizon is the only company to offer such a communications network all the way to customers in millions of homes and offices across the country.

Verizon customers in Plaistow and Newton, New Hampshire and Portsmouth, Greenland, Newington, Stratham and New Castle, Massachusetts can experience breathtaking high-speed Internet access as the company unveils its Verizon FiOS (FYE'-ose) suite of Internet services to homes and small business here.

Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg today urged Congress to reform the age-old cable franchise approval process that effectively delays consumer choice and price competition in the consumer video market by impeding rapid entry by market insurgents.

Seidenberg said Verizon offers its FiOS TV in portions of seven states, but that the federal law requiring a second franchise from thousands of local authorities to offer competing video service over its network - as well as cable operators' efforts to block the process - is "the biggest limiting factor to how fast we can offer video over our fiber network."

The Bucks County borough of Hulmeville Monday night (Feb. 6) launched a new era in cable choice for Pennsylvanians, thanks to a unanimous Borough Council vote authorizing Verizon to offer its fiber-optic-powered FiOS TV.

Hulmeville Borough is the first Pennsylvania jurisdiction to grant Verizon a cable franchise.

The Bradenton City Council awarded a far-reaching video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV product, to be delivered via its new, all-fiber network.

The Bradenton franchise brings competition and consumer choice to 54,000 residents in the city. It marks the second franchise granted in this community, following the affirmative decision reached by the Manatee County Commission in August 2005. Bradenton joins Manatee County, Temple Terrace and Hillsborough County as the fourth municipality in Florida to grant a franchise to Verizon as the company continues its campaign to be permitted to deliver television services to customers in its service territory.

Residents and businesses in seven Rhode Island communities are one step closer to having a long-awaited choice for their video services. Verizon filed a petition with the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers (DPUC) seeking a franchise to provide the communities with a fiber-optic-based alternative to their cable TV.

The communities are: Coventry, East Greenwich, Exeter, North Kingstown, Warwick, West Greenwich and West Warwick.

Verizon unveiled Verizon FiOS TV in California today to residents of Beaumont, making this city of 21,000 the first in the state to receive the new service. Verizon will begin taking customer orders immediately.

The introduction of FiOS TV in California brings to six the number of states where Verizon offers its new TV service. FiOS TV is already available in 14 North Texas communities near Dallas; Temple Terrace, Fla.; Herndon, Va., and surrounding parts of Fairfax County, Va.; Woburn, Mass.; and Massapequa Park, N.Y.