Verizon's Chief Marketing Officer Sees Advantage over Cable

Verizon's all-fiber broadband and TV network will prove to be a strategic advantage over all competitors, said Bob Ingalls, Verizon Telecom Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Office, speaking at the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council's meeting in Las Vegas.



"The claims by the competition -- most notably the cable industry -- that they offer a similar fiber-dense network fall a mile short -- the last mile," said Ingalls.



Last week, Verizon plans to pass 18 million premises with its fiber network by the end of 2010 -- more than half the approximately 33 million households in the company's 28-state wireline service area. The company is on target to pass 6 million households by the end of this year.



Verizon is also seeing strong customer demand for FiOS TV, which was launched in its first market just over a year ago. By the end of the third quarter of 2006, Verizon expects to have more than 100,000 FiOS TV customers, and the company estimates that about two-thirds of FiOS TV customers have discontinued their cable TV service.



Verizon has set a target of 175,000 FiOS TV customers by year-end 2006 and making the service available to 1.8 million households. This would be a market penetration rate of approximately 10 percent.



Verizon's goal is for FiOS TV to have a market penetration rate that ranges from 20 percent to 25 percent by 2010 -- or from 3 million to 4 million FiOS TV customers -- based on its estimate that approximately 15 million households will be video-ready by then.

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