Residents of the Westchester County community of Mount Pleasant and the Long Island village of Sands Point are a major step closer to having a real choice for their cable television services, thanks to newly approved agreements authorizing Verizon to offer its FiOS TV service, delivered over the most advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes. The Board of Trustees for both communities voted Tuesday night (May 22) to approve video franchises for Verizon.

Mount Pleasant and Sands Point join a growing list of New York communities that are paving the way for competition and choice in the television market. In addition to these two communities, Verizon has been granted video franchises in the Westchester County communities of North Castle, White Plains, Rye Brook, Irvington, Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Eastchester, Mount Kisco, Elmsford, Port Chester, Tuckahoe and the Town of Greenburgh. Verizon also has video franchises in the Rockland County communities of Chestnut Ridge, Airmont, Piermont, Orangetown, Clarkstown, Nyack, South Nyack, Upper Nyack, Grandview-on-Hudson, West Haverstraw and the Town of Haverstraw; and on Long Island in the villages of Massapequa Park, Cedarhurst, Laurel Hollow, Lynbrook, Mineola, East Rockaway, Farmingdale, Valley Stream, Freeport, Williston Park, New Hyde Park and Bayville, and in the towns of North Hempstead, Huntington, Smithtown, Hempstead and Oyster Bay.

As with all local franchise approvals in New York, the agreements approved for Verizon by Mount Pleasant and Sands Point are subject to review by the New York State Public Service Commission.