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.

Verizon Enhanced Communities is launching a major marketing campaign, sending business development executives and engineers to meet with multi-dwelling-unit (MDU) owners and condominium/co-op associations to negotiate marketing and access agreements and technology upgrades.

Verizon has various technologies available to provide services in multi-dwelling buildings and complexes, depending on what facilities are in place or can be installed. Verizon signed right-of-way agreements covering more than 57,000 units in just six months last year.

Verizon is concentrating sales efforts in those parts of 16 states where the company is building out its all-fiber network. Verizon is the only communications company deploying fiber-optic technology all the way to customers on a major scale.

"We have the technology, we have the sales and engineering team, and we have the solutions to bring our industry-leading FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services to a huge potential market that amounts to about a fifth of Verizon's customer base," said Eric Cevis, vice president of Verizon's Enhanced Communities group. "MDU owners and managers know that first-rate telecommunications services like our FiOS Internet and FiOS TV products differentiate their properties.

"We are intensifying our effort, begun last year, to get FiOS services into the MDUs, and we expect this year to dwarf last year's MDU sales penetration."

The Enhanced Communities group also has worked with developers to connect new homes to Verizon's fiber network. The group has agreements with builders and developers covering roughly 152,000 homes. The marketing activity in both segments has been conducted by Verizon Avenue, the business unit long associated with Verizon's multi-unit, multi-building marketing.

According to Cevis, the first step in signing up MDUs is securing a right-of-way inside buildings. Either new fiber or existing cabling and wiring can be used to deliver the services. Building owners and Verizon agree on the technology to be used.

With pathways engineered, building owners can have an exclusive marketing arrangement with Verizon, or can opt for other marketing arrangements.

"We have solutions for just about every situation," Cevis said. "And we're finding that owners and developers in the MDU community, like the single family developers, see the power of fiber-to-the-premises installations to differentiate their properties from non-fiber installations when marketing their properties.

"And that differentiation goes beyond initial sales or rentals," he said. "Because the capacity of fiber is virtually unlimited, we know it can be kept current with new technologies or bandwidth demands."

Verizon's aggressive marketing campaign began on a successful note with the announcement today of an agreement with a seniors citizens' complex in Huntington Beach, Calif.

The 1,238-unit complex, Huntington Landmark, has been retrofitted with Verizon fiber optic facilities and a limited marketing agreement signed with the owner to offer FiOS services to residents.