The City Council last night voted unanimously to award a video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV product, to be delivered via its new, all-fiber network.

In awarding the franchise, this city of 23,000 becomes the first in Florida to pave the way for improved competition in the cable television market. It joins Keller, Wylie, Sachse and Westlake, all in Texas, and Beaumont, Calif., as cities that have awarded video franchises to Verizon.

Verizon is placing over 1.2 million feet of fiber to serve the Temple Terrace community. When completed, residents will enjoy FiOS broadband products delivering data speeds ranging from up to 5 Mbps to up to 30 Mbps (megabits per second). Later this year, Verizon will introduce its FiOS TV product in parts of North Texas. Additional communities with franchises in place will begin to receive the product sometime after this initial rollout.

Verizon’s Temple Terrace franchise will provide an unrivaled video service to its residents. Under the agreement, which covers 15 years and includes a $35,000 grant, Verizon will provide service to all of Temple Terrace once the company’s fiber network is completely built out. In addition, the agreement contains provisions for the network’s future growth; financial support and capacity for educational and governmental access channels; support for a future institutional network (I-NET) that can link schools, libraries and other institutions; cable service to government buildings at no cost; and other important protections including insurance, indemnification and enforcement protections.

Verizon FiOS TV will offer customers a competitive alternative to cable or satellite. It will deliver hundreds of digital video channels, high-definition programming, video-on-demand content, music channels, an interactive programming guide and other customer-friendly features via the company's fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband network. Verizon is already constructing FTTP networks in half the states where it offers landline communications service.

Customers will be able to buy FiOS TV as a stand-alone service or packaged with voice and FiOS high-speed data services, which are already available in some areas. Currently, Verizon has announced content commitments with NBC Universal Cable, Starz Entertainment Group, Showtime Networks, A&E Television Networks, Discovery Networks, Varsity TV, Gospel Music Channel, Soundtrack Channel, MavTV, GolTV, SiTV and NFL Network, and is close to finalizing agreements with several other major content-partners.