In New Jersey, Verizon's FiOS TV is available now to approximately 250,000 households in parts of 106 communities in Bergen, Camden, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties. The service will soon be expanded to hundreds of thousands of additional households in more than 100 additional communities. Under the state's new streamlined video franchise law, Verizon has announced plans to offer FiOS TV over its all-fiber network in more than 300 communities in the next few years.

Verizon launched the service in New Jersey Thursday at the company's video hub office in Freehold. The new, state-of-the-art video distribution center receives video signals from Verizon's super-head-end offices and then distributes the programming throughout the state over the new fiber network.

Verizon, wanting to stay on top of the heap, has revved up their FiOS Internet service. FiOS customers in five states can now enjoy up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 5 Mbps upstream, as the company continues to raise the speed of its super-high-speed, all-fiber Internet service.

At 50 Mbps, a user could download a 5-megabyte mp3 in approximately 1 second or a 5-gigabyte high-definition movie in around 15 minutes. This naturally depends on both sides of the connection.

The mid-tier maximum connection speed in those markets was increased from 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream to 20/5 Mbps, and the top-tier service was increased from 30/5 Mbps to 50/5 Mbps. The company plans similar FiOS Internet speed increases this year in some of the 11 other states where the service is available.

Verizon gave those who can't yet get FiOS another reason to be jealous as they unveiled the FiOS generation of its Verizon One communications device, bringing together an all-in-one voice, data and video center for the home. Expected to be available this spring, the next-generation Verizon One will be manufactured exclusively for Verizon FiOS Internet customers under a multi-year contract with OpenPeak.

Sleeker, more powerful and more flexible than the current Verizon One device, the next-generation command center features a digital cordless phone mounted on a tablet-sized base. The seven-inch, high-resolution touchscreen provides a one-stop solution for multiple household communications needs. From the device, FiOS customers can access their e-mail and voice mail; log into personal calendars and address books; consult movie listings; and check the latest news and weather. Additional features planned for the future would allow customers to access traffic reports; order a pizza or movie tickets online; and send memos or text messages to family members.

Did we mention it comes in different colors?

The new device will accommodate both traditional and VoIP phone calls, while also streaming music from the Internet to be replayed over attached stereo speakers and previewing images or video from digital cameras or camcorders. It will also play movie trailers from the Internet, connect to a printer and support a total of up to five handsets throughout the home.

Verizon president and chief operating officer Denny Strigl Sunday said the company is leading the way in the next revolution of television. "With the strength of our powerful wireless and fiber networks, we have transformed our business into one of the world's greatest content-delivery systems," he said.

To prove the point, Strigl raised the curtain on Verizon's next-generation FiOS TV and V CAST Mobile TV from Verizon Wireless.

The new FiOS will pull together content from a variety of sources - broadcast TV, the Internet and users' own private music and photo collections - into one media-management system. It also provides the company's growing base of FiOS TV customers with a new navigational tool and delivers a superior entertainment experience not available to users of competitors' broadband or cable services.

At the heart of the system is a new interactive media guide that makes watching FiOS TV easier and better than ever. With the new guide, customers can find, control and manage a vast array of digital content including television programming, movies, Internet video, games, music and photos. This lets a customer, for example, watch a movie about an action hero, play a video game about the same character and buy retail items associated with the character, all on the same home system.

The future of television is arriving for consumers in parts of the greater Richmond area as Verizon introduces FiOS TV over its revolutionary fiber-optic network.

Verizon delivers FiOS TV over the nation's largest digital, all-fiber network. Only this network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes.

There's no doubt that the right to broadcast the NFL Network is an advantage for any television provider. Personally, it's hard to recall the number of people who have credited their switch to a satellite network due to the NFL package.

So why aren't Time Warner and Comcast, two of the largest cable companies in the U.S., going deep for the rights to broadcast the NFL Network? According to Time Warner and other cable operators, the monthly fees the NFL Network would charge are too high.

Really? Apparently they aren't too high for Verizon and their FiOS IPTV service. Verizon released a press release yesterday rubbing in the fact that they've negotiated rights to offer the NFL Network, which also has rights to broadcast the Texas Bowl this year.

Verizon introduced FiOS TV in dozens of communities in the greater Philadelphia area, the first such rollout in the tri-state area. In southeastern Pennsylvania, Verizon FiOS TV is available now to 80,000 households in parts of 35 communities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. The company expects that number to increase to 100,000 households by the end of the year.

In Delaware, Verizon plans to offer FiOS TV to 13,000 households in the southern New Castle County area by the end of the year.

The National Football League and Verizon Communications have agreed to deliver live NFL Network sports and entertainment programming via Verizon's consumer broadband services, beginning Dec. 7 with the matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. Verizon already offers the NFL Network television channel to subscribers of its FiOS TV Service and is the only Internet service provider to deliver selected NFL Network programming over broadband.

Apparently, people aren't the only ones waiting for fiber to come to their area. Once upon a time, a squirrel came along an expensive fiber-optic FiOS line and decided to rewire some of it for his little cavern.

"I lost my FiOS connectivity Saturday morning, rendering my Verizon (VZ) triple-play package of voice, data, and television inoperative. The culprit? Squirrels," writes Andrew Schmitt.

Click here to read the terrible tale "Squirrels Ate My FiOS." While this is definitely tragic, I still believe it comes in second to "Russian squirrel pack kills dog."

Verizon has expanded its FiOS TV service to more New York consumers via the company's all-digital, fiber-optic network. Verizon is now taking orders for its fiber-optic TV service in the Long Island villages of Farmingdale and Valley Stream, as well as the Town of Huntington hamlets of Centerport, Cold Spring Harbor, Greenlawn, Huntington Station, Huntington and Melville, and the Town of Smithtown hamlets of Hauppauge, Lake Grove, Lake Ronkonkoma, Nesconset, Smithtown and St. James. Also today, Verizon launched FiOS TV in the Westchester County village of Irvington.

Verizon has introduced FiOS TV to consumers in Lexington and West Newbury, which make up more than 10,000 households.

Verizon also has TV franchises in the Massachusetts communities of Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester and Tyngsborough, and is currently negotiating with some 30 other communities in the state to obtain additional franchises. For more information on the Verizon franchise process in the state, visit www.verizon.com/ma.

Verizon began offering its FiOS TV service to consumers in the Long Island village of East Rockaway via the company's fiber-optic FiOS network. The company will launch its FiOS TV service later this year in the Westchester County Town of Greenburgh and, upon New York State Public Service Commission approval, in the Long Island communities of Smithtown, Huntington, Valley Stream and Farmingdale as well as the Westchester County village of Irvington.

Spurred by significant growth in deployment and demand for its fiber-optic-based Internet and TV services around the country, Verizon is hiring about 320 more employees for its state-of-the-art Fiber Solutions Centers (FSCs) in six locations.

The company is seeking candidates for management and associate positions at FSCs in Dallas; Hampton, Va.; Oxnard, Calif.; Providence, R.I.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Everett, Wash.

Verizon has set a target of 725,000 FiOS Internet customers by year-end 2006, with the service available for sale to 5 million premises. This would represent a market penetration of approximately 15 percent, toward a 2010 goal of 35 percent to 40 percent -- or from 6 million to 7 million FiOS Internet customers.

Verizon today began offering its FiOS TV service to more New York consumers on Long Island, offering a true choice for subscription television and on-demand programming via the company's all-digital, fiber-optic network. Verizon is the first company to offer such a communications network, connecting homes and businesses directly to fiber optics on a widespread scale.

The Boards of Selectmen in Acton and Lincoln granted cable-TV franchises to Verizon Tuesday (Oct. 3), paving the way for cable TV choice for approximately 10,600 more Massachusetts households.