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 17 minutes. This depends on both sides of the connection but naturally speaks for itself.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island recently joined New York, Connecticut and New Jersey as states where Verizon has increased the maximum connection speed of both its mid-tier and top-tier FiOS Internet services.

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. Specifics will be announced at a later date.

Speaking at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Brian Whitton, executive director of access network design and integration for Verizon Telecom, said, "Today's digital family relies on an increasing number of consumer electronics for their communication, their entertainment and their overall productivity. Digital cameras, high-def TV, remote-monitored home security, wireless networks, online multiplayer gaming systems, telecommuting connections, MP3 players, multiple PCs and more are increasingly commonplace at home. Broadband is the powerful thread that optimizes these devices and ties them all together.

"Our ability to deliver increasingly higher broadband connection speeds to customers illustrates the real benefits of deploying fiber optics all the way into customers' homes," Whitton continued. "Only Verizon is creating a 'future-proof' network with the headroom to quickly and efficiently accommodate customers' growing needs for more speed to maximize their digital experiences."

Verizon is the only major U.S. telecommunications company building an advanced, all-digital, fiber-optic network on a mass scale all the way to customers' homes. Verizon is the first and only major telecommunications company to be certified by the independent Fiber to the Home Council as providing customers with 100 percent fiber-optic service, the ultimate communications and entertainment technology.

More than 6 million homes and businesses in parts of 16 states are now passed by Verizon's all-fiber network, and the company expects its new network to pass about 18 million premises by the end of 2010. Verizon had 522,000 FiOS Internet customers across 16 states at the end of the third quarter of 2006. The company also delivers its all-digital FiOS TV service over the network in parts of ten states.

FiOS Internet service is offered in more than 1,600 communities across parts of all 16 states where the company's new network is deployed: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington. The company currently offers FiOS TV service in parts of ten states: California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.