Verizon, serving nearly 114 million retail connections across the U.S., has announced the launch of Fios Gigabit Connection, a national deployment of gigabit Internet service offering download speed of up to 940 Mbit/s and upload speed as fast as 880 Mbit/s.
Following the launch of Fios Instant Internet service in January, Verizon noted that network performance exceeded expectations, with Instant Internet customers experiencing actual speeds above the advertised symmetrical 750 Mbit/s upload and download rates. Verizon has subsequently fine-tuned the service with new firmware and diagnostic tools to enhance performance to deliver the Fios Gigabit Connection service.
Fios Gigabit Connection is available to more than 8 million homes in parts of the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Richmond and Hampton Roads, Virginia, Boston, Providence and Washington DC areas. The coverage area adds more than one million homes to the Instant Internet footprint, with Verizon's highest speed Internet service available in the Washington DC and Providence markets for the first time.
In areas where Fios Gigabit Connection service is available, Verizon is offering two tiers of standalone Internet service - 50 Mbit/s and Gigabit Connection. Existing customers to Instant Internet service will automatically receive Fios Gigabit Connection.
As part of its fibre strategy, Verizon launched the One Fiber approach in Boston in 2016 and cited plans to invest $300 million over six years to deploy fibre throughout the city. Verizon originally announced plans in April 2016 to build a new fibre network to support services including Fios in Boston.
In January of this year, the company announced the launch of Fios Instant Internet in parts of Boston and Norfolk, Virginia offering symmetrical 750 Mbit/s bandwidth. Verizon also announced the launch of Fios Instant Internet in greater New York City and northern New Jersey, Philadelphia and Richmond, providing over 7 million premises on the East Coast with access to its Instant Internet offering.
Earlier in April, Verizon announced a three-year minimum purchase agreement with Corning for the provision of fibre optic cable and associated hardware equipment to ensure coverage and capacity for its nationwide wireless broadband network. Under the agreement, Verizon will purchase from Corning up to 20 million km (12.4 million miles) of fibre in each of the three years from 2018 through to 2020, with a minimum purchase commitment of $1.05 billion.
