Verizon at Home

[#1]

I’ve been on the road a bit this week and am posting this from California. Most people who think about Verizon probably think don’t think first about our business in here on the West Coast. But right now, I’m in one of the biggest Verizon states – the Golden State. An apt name for Verizon since a considerable part of our corporate revenue comes from providing service to consumers and businesses here.

In California, Verizon serves some three million landline customers across roughly 22% of the state with our voice, data and video networks. Verizon operates one of the most extensive wireless phone and data networks in the state. Our wireline footprint encompasses much of coastal California from Santa Barbara south to Laguna Beach -- including major cities like Oxnard, Huntington Beach and parts of Los Angeles -- as well as the high-growth inland areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

I've been meeting with our business leaders at Verizon's regional headquarters here in Thousand Oaks for a regular review of operations. One thing is clear from these sessions. Verizon is committed to delivering outstanding service in California. We’ve invested more than $1.7 billion in our wireless, copper and fiber networks in just the last year alone. Over the past five years we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars deploying our cutting-edge fiber-optic network and today more than a million homes -- more than a third of those we serve in the state – can now order Verizon's FiOS TV and Internet service. And the service is strong with 127 channels of HD TV available to California customers, 50 mbps Internet service and more than 15,000 video-on-demand channels. Verizon's commitment to building the best networks in the state is matched by its dedication to improving the lives of all Californians. In 2008 the Verizon Foundation gave more than $7.6 million to nonprofits here to promote literacy, improve health care and prevent domestic violence. That commitment will continue.

From the statistics our team here has been giving us, it’s clear that we are on a path to continuously upgrade the Verizon networks. That makes it possible to offer cutting edge services like FiOS TV. The thousands every week who chuck their old fashioned cable and move to FiOS are proof that customers see the difference between old fashioned cable and Verizon’s 100% fiber network and like what they see.

This has been a quick trip, but always good to see the progress we’re making in an important state serving customers and beating cable.

Message Edited by Eric_Rabe on 08-20-2009 10:20 AM

[#2]

When can we get some Verizon FIOS love in Albuquerque, New Mexico? It's one of the fastest growing metro areas in the Southwest and we're starving for something better than Comcast or Qwest DSL.

[#3]

nmchileman, I would love to snap my fingers and deliver FiOS to NM tomorrow, but sorry to say it can't happen.  As you can appreciate, it is a big country out there, and although we're spending billions a year to deploy FiOS we can't be everywhere.  So we're focused on the expanding the areas where we have already begun to deploy fiber all the way to customers' homes and where we have franchises for television service.