We’ve all heard the saying – “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”  More and more, we see work following us around – in the office, at home, at the baseball game, you name it.  There’s no question the world of work is changing – but that’s a good thing for consumers.

 

Everyone together now – “huh?”

 

Over at the Verizon Business Think Forward blog, our colleague Stefanie Scott wonders - what's your work style?  

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For the sixth year in a row, Verizon’s FiOS Internet service has earned top billing from PCMag.com readers in its annual Reader’s Choice Award for Internet service providers.

 

Not only did FiOS Internet earn the highest overall rating, an 8.8 compared to the average 6.9 score in the survey, but Verizon’s flagship consumer broadband service also secured the highest satisfaction scores for speed, 8.8, reliability, 9.1, and the highest likelihood of being recommended, 9.0, out of a possible 10 points.

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There are many benefits for being a Verizon customer from the Verizon Perks program to having the options in personalizing the bundle that is right for you, but did you know about Verizon Wi-Fi?

 

Verizon Wi-Fi lets qualified Verizon FiOS and High Speed Internet subscribers use their wireless-enabled laptops, tablets and netbooks to access the Internet at thousands of public places known as Wi-Fi hotspots. If you subscribe to High Speed Internet Enhanced or FiOS 15/5 Mbps service or higher, you qualify for the Verizon Wi-Fi service. 

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With the ongoing flurry of graduations and with Fathers Day (June 19) just days away, gadget gift shopping is in full swing, promising to put even more demand on home Internet connections.

 

Research indicates that the average American home has as many as five devices connected to its Internet service, and that number is expected to double over the next three years.  Of course, the best way to get the most out of those new Internet-dependent devices is to also give the dad or grad the fastest, most reliable Internet service – FiOS.

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Imagine being at a restaurant and asking  your waiter for a medium rare filet with a baked potato and  house salad, shocked to learn that the only way you can get what you want is if you also order broccoli and a Jell-O mold.  Otherwise, you have to order a New York strip to get those particular side orders…and it only comes medium well!

 

Over the years, some customers have said that ordering a bundle of FiOS services has been too limiting.  If you wanted, say, faster Internet speed or more TV channels, you still needed to move up to the next bundle tier – and up again to get even more broadband speed.

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At a financial analyst conference in New York this week, Time Warner Cable’s CEO said that broadband is replacing TV as his company’s anchor product. 

 

Dow Jones reported that Time Warner’s new focus on broadband reflects its continued loss of TV customers to Verizon FiOS, at&t Uverse and satellite offerings, and that “the rise of web video has also led to concerns that consumers will drop traditional pay-TV subscriptions in favor of online alternatives.”   

 

This got me to thinking about how U.S.cable and telecom companies have changed, and continue to change.

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Just for fun, take a quick mental inventory of the connected devices you have in your house today.  Not just the usual suspects, like PCs, laptops and smartphones, but others as well – game consoles, tablets, DVRs, smart thermostats, e-readers, HDTVs and so on.

 

I count 8 in my home, and we’re just a family of two.  If we still had kids at home, I’d need to add their devices too, which could easily take us into the double digits.  

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Editor’s Note: Mike Weston, director of product development for Verizon Enhanced Communities, blogs from this week’s Broadband Properties magazine summit in Dallas, an annual gathering of managers and developers of apartments and condominiums.  Mike reports that one of the big themes from this year’s summit is that residents are looking for quality broadband and wireless connections when selecting a place to live.

 

By Mike Weston

 

After spending three really good days in Dallas – minus the wildfires and tornadoes – with multi-family and technology professionals at the Broadband Properties magazine summit, a few themes and trends stand out for me:

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Editor’s note: Brian J. Bischoff, president and CEO of Healthsense, discusses an alliance between Heathsense and Verizon to bring wellness and health monitoring services to FiOS-equipped senior-living communities.

 

By Brian J. Bischoff

 

There’s no getting around it.  More Americans are getting grayer and grayer.

 

The Baby Boom generation – those Americans born between 1946 and 1964 -- continues its inexorable march toward official senior-citizen status, with estimates that the number of Americans over the age of 65 will blossom to about 70 million by the year 2030.

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{Editor’s Note} Our guest blogger is John 'CZ' Czwartacki. John directs a range of external communications efforts for Verizon, including serving as "Blog Editor" for the company's first web log and as coordinator of outreach to digital and other select media.  Original Post of "The Future Requires Fiber" posted on Verizon's Policyblog. 

 

By: John 'CZ' Czwartacki 

 

Welcome to the future, Kansas City, Kansas!

 

Google’s long awaited decision on which city it was going to wire with a local fiber network capable of delivering one gigabit broadband speeds is now public.  And, KCK, you are the lucky winners.

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Many of you may recall The Honeymooners sitcom.  It’s made the round of cable reruns over the last few decades.  Ralph and Alice Kramden lived a Spartan existence in their black and white world.  There was no phone, no TV, no AC.

 

Technology changes more than just the color of apartment and condo living – it changes everything.  It’s a truism multi-family property developers, managers and business leaders from across the country are learning more about this week in Chantilly, VA.

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Words evolve over time and so do lifestyles.  Case in point: home entertainment is no longer confined to the home. Verizon customers can now access their home Internet, TV and landline service anywhere, anytime via their smartphones, laptops or tablet devices.

 

You’re also using home TVs to access social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as fantasy football.  And Verizon makes it even better with free widgets and live online programming like the recently added ESPN channels.

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Congratulations to Verizon Wireless, which today announced its newest smartphone, the iPhone 4.

 

The iPhone is one of several Apple devices compatible with FiOS Mobile, our free app that lets customers use their mobile device as a remote control and DVR manager. The feature is available on more than 40 mobile devices.

 

FiOS TV customers have been able to use their iPhones and iPod Touch devices with FiOS Mobile since October of 2010.  We added the iPad to the list of supported devices in December of last year.  Now, customers can also buy an iPhone from Verizon and enjoy the benefits of the nation’s largest and most reliable network.

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From the recent launch of Verizon’s LTE network to the 150/35 Mbps FiOS speeds introduced a few weeks ago, you have heard a lot of news from us about broadband speed, but here at Verizon, we are always looking to the future.

 

Verizon’s Joe Ambeault recently talked with Beet.TV about speed and why it is important to consumers today and for many years to come. You can watch the video here.

 

According to Joe, today’s broadband speeds often become an issue for family members when they’re trying to use their Internet connection simultaneously. On smaller connections, they are forced to make compromises whether it’s decreased video quality or decreased download speeds.

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If you missed the sonic boom heard around the broadband world last week, we introduced our newest FiOS Internet speed offer of 150/35 Mbps. The new service has the fastest Internet speeds available to consumers, and it’s 50 times faster than anything our competitors can offer.  Soon, we’ll extend our new fastest Internet service to our small business customers, so stay tuned for more details this month.

 

Reaction from the news media has been terrific.  CNET said Verizon has been pushing the envelope since we began offering the FiOS service.  Other news outlets like the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal reported that FiOS, with the addition of the new industry fastest service, claimed the Internet speed crown while leapfrogging past competitors.  

 

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It’s good to be king.  In this case, the undisputed king of broadband Internet service among major U.S. Internet service providers as we introduce today our newest FiOS Internet speed offer of 150/35 megabits per second.

 

As compared to some of Verizon’s chief cable rivals, our new speed provides 50 percent faster download speed than the fastest download speeds of Comcast and Cablevision.  In contrast to cable giant Time Warner, our fastest download speed rockets 200 percent faster than its fastest download speed.

 

As fans of FiOS, and broadband fans in general know, upstream speeds are equally important in this visual era where consumers send mega-sized amounts of video, images and data to colleagues professionally, plus post them to social media sites for fun.

 

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If you’re a broadband customer – and most of us are – we live in exciting times.  We’re using more bandwidth-hungry apps like HD video streaming, and providers are pushing more speed through their networks to meet our demands.

 

Whether you’re a Verizon customer or not, your provider may be offering you higher broadband speeds than it did a year or two ago. Cable has upped the ante with DOCSIS 3.0, particularly in areas where they’re seeing competition, and the Fiber to the Home Council reports that smaller wireline carriers are following Verizon’s lead and building all-fiber networks.

 

But what happens next? Some experts say bandwidth demands are growing tenfold every six years. Some say the rate of change is even greater. Will your provider be able to offer ultra-fast speeds when you’re ready for them?

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Remember when cell phones were used for just talking?  My how the world has changed.  Today’s mobile devices are steadily turning into texting and video-messaging machines and portable video viewers.

 

With this change in the way people communicate, we think it’s increasingly important to offer value-rich bundles that provide consumers the flexibility to mix and match wireless and wireline services, plus reward them with financial incentives.

 

Our latest offer does just that as we combine our highly regarded broadband services -- Verizon FiOS and High Speed Internet service -- with a Verizon Visa^® prepaid card worth up to $200 toward the purchase of a new DROID smartphone of the  customer’s choice.

 

As more consumers use multiple devices for entertainment, we believe we’re enhancing the overall value of Verizon’s bundles by adding another screen to our customers’ viewing options with our DROID smartphone offer.

 

With our latest bundle offer, FiOS customers can now relish their favorite movies and photos on their TV, laptop, home computer and DROID screen.  In terms of quality, our customers are in good hands because they will be able to watch content that travels over our fiber-to-the-home network and the largest, most reliable wireless 3G network.

 

 

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Have you ever asked a friend or neighbor to help you set up a TV, home entertainment system or wireless network?  Do you wish you knew of an easy way to organize photos from multiple SD cards?  

 

Well, there’s a great new resource available – the Verizon Community's online shared experience and tutorial site, Room To Learn.  It’s an easy way to get started and to learn to manage your digital content.  In addition to self-paced tutorials on home networking and entertainment, there are weekly features like “Synchronize Your Family” by long-time PC World contributor Alfred Poor.

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If you haven’t heard already, Verizon Wireless announced on Thursday they will begin selling Apple’s iPad in stores starting October 28. This is great news for consumers, but it doesn’t stop there if you’re a FiOS TV customer.

 

Today, we’re letting customers know the iPhone and iPod are now compatible with FiOS Mobile Remote, an application that lets FiOS TV HD customers use select mobile phones as remote controls.  The addition of these two Apple products makes the app available on more than 40 devices, including every device running Android software v.2.1 or higher. If you want to see if your device is compatible with Mobile Remote, check out the complete list here.

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Since FiOS TV's inception in 2005, we have worked to develop the product in close collaboration with our customers.  It has always been my goal as the product director to spend as little time as possible on the white board and in the labs in favor of getting our teams into the real world with each of you.  While we aren’t perfect, I am confident that we’ve made major strides in the last five years, and we aren’t done yet. 

 

Today, we’re formally introducing our latest tool, the Verizon Idea Exchange, but first a little history...

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We’ve done it again. For the third consecutive year, J.D. Power and Associates has found that FiOS TV outperforms our competition in the East.

 

FiOS TV service has been ranked “Highest in Residential Television Service Satisfaction in the East Region” in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study^SM.

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Multichannel News had some interesting updates this week about the Verizon FiOS rollout in New York City. After talking with our VP of Operations for the city Paul Sullivan, reporter Todd Spangler told his readers that Verizon’s all-fiber network now passes around 1.8 million homes and businesses or 58 percent of the city’s roughly 3.1 million households.

 

Sullivan told Spangler that “we’re going full steam” in New York City, and we’re on track to meet our franchise agreement to have FiOS extended across New York City by the end of June 2014.

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Do you have too many gadgets and too many remote controls that operate many items in your home? Most likely you’ll answer, “Yes.”  Now imagine a unified control panel that will control your home essentials like lights, thermostat, alarm and video using three screens: your TV, your computer and your smartphone.

 

Verizon not only is imagining a “connected home,” we’ll unveil a new connected home service soon, and Verizon’s Ann Shaub is previewing it today at the 2010 Digital Home Summit for broadband providers.

 

 

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Here at Verizon we’re very proud of the all-fiber-optic network that we’ve brought to homes and businesses.  But we’re not the only company offering the advantages of fiber to consumers. 

 

Providers of all sizes and in different countries are building fiber-to-the-home networks, and many of them are gathering this week at the annual 2010 FTTH Conference & Expo organized by the Fiber to the Home Council.

 

What does this mean to you?

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We’ve told you about all the interactive football content on FiOS, made possible by our all-fiber network. So it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that we’re using some of the same technology to expand the game-day experience for fans actually at the stadium.

The New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., is a good case in point. Home of the Jets and Giants, the New Meadowlands is one of the most technologically advanced in the country. Screens and other devices in the stadium are connected by Verizon’s fiber and wireless networks and by Cisco technology, which means that fans will enjoy the added benefit of video, player statistics and other information as they watch the game. Read more...

Customer relationship management expert Jim Kane hit the bull’s eye on the importance of customer service in our industry, and among our competitors, with comments in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article about satisfaction.

“The problem for cable, satellite and phone companies is that they expect to get credit for things they're expected to be doing," Mr. Kane said in the article bearing the headline ‘Satisfaction in Cable Lags.’ "If you want me to be a loyal customer, you have to go beyond the things you're supposed to do.” Read more...

Many of you have asked when MASN2 would become available in HD on FiOS TV. Well, the time is now. Whether you’re rooting for the Nationals or the Orioles, or if you’re looking forward to seeing the Ravens in high def, you’ll now get it all on FiOS in HD.

MASN2 HD will be available on Channel 501 on FiOS1, our local channel for news, sports, traffic and weather. We offer FiOS1 throughout the D.C. metro area, including parts of Maryland and Virginia. Right now just the MASN2 programming will be in HD, but we hope to bring Verizon’s local programs to you in high-def down the line. And for those of you in the area outside the FiOS1 footprint, we’re working on a technical solution to make the MASN2 HD feed available to you as well. Read more...

If you’re a FiOS triple play customer, you may have noticed something new in the mail from Verizon: the Spotlight Magazine. Earlier this year we started offering this bimonthly publication that offers a look at the hottest content available on FiOS.

Each issue includes a look into Video on Demand, premium content and a two-page content calendar featuring big premieres and other events. In the July-August issue, this includes the pay-per-view UFC Lesnar vs. Carwin event on Saturday, July 3 at 10 p.m. ET; the movie “Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler on Tuesday, July 13; the EPIX free preview on channels 395 (SD) and 895 (HD) July 16-18; and the July 27 premiere of chef Gordon Ramsey’s newest show “Master Chef.” Read more...

The lyrics of singer Bobby McFerrin’s 1989 Grammy award winning song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” ring true this week as we introduce new consumer-friendly changes to the way we offer our FiOS bundles.

Change is difficult, and switching communication providers can cause people to worry. We don’t want prospective consumers wringing their hands when contemplating the switch to Verizon.

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