RSSVerizon Taps Alcatel-Lucent to Upgrade FiOS
By Ed Oswald | Published March 27, 2007, 6:00 PM
Verizon said Tuesday that it plans to deploy technology developed by Alcatel-Lucent across its FiOS service area that could increase speeds by four to eight times.
Customers in Lewisville, Texas and Kirklyn, Pennsylvania would be the first to receive the upgrade, called a gigabit passive optical network (G-PON). Verizon would be the first to deploy the new technology within the United States.
Download speeds would increase fourfold, while upstream rates would increase eight times. Verizon says the technology is essential to future planned upgrades for both its television and Internet services.
Lewisville residents would benefit from the new upgrades early in the second quarter. Kirklyn residents would follow during the summer, and pending the success of the tests, future rollouts would be announced.
In the meantime, Verizon would continue to rollout an earlier version of the technology, called broadband passive optical network (B-PON), to additional areas. The company currently has about 6 million connected to the network across 16 states, it says.
Verizon hopes to add another 3 million homes annually, reaching about 18 million by the beginning of the next decade.
"Simply by deploying G-PON optics and associated electronics, we get a significant boost in bandwidth," Verizon senior vice president and chief technology officer Mark Wegleitner said. "This will allow us to continue offering our customers the best broadband, video and voice services available today and tomorrow."
Alcatel-Lucent earlier this week signed another agreement with Verizon to help upgrade and expand its wireless network.
I don't want anything Verizon has to offer. Eventually they screw all of their customers in one way or another.
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How about try to deploy FIOS in all areas before you try to upgrade it? Metro like NYC has been requesting it for years. Yet, because of no competition, NYC is still to their DSL
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Im in suburban NY and have FIOS. It's great!!!! I get 20 download/5 upload now.... I can only imagine what the speed boost will be like.
I only wish I could get FIOS-TV, but my town hasn't yet approved it.
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I have the TV and Internet FiOS and both are great. Download/Upload (20 dl/5ul) speeds are way faster then cable and DSL combined and the TV is even better (IMO). I live in Long Island, NY where it was readily available when I moved in 6 months ago. But it should be available in greater NYC...
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