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In their own backyard--eventually
April 26, 2007

The May issue of Test & Measurement World will feature a cover story about Verizon Labs where engineers test all aspects of the company's fiber-optic communications service known as FiOS. Verizon Labs is located about a mile from the T&MW offices in Waltham, MA.

Although Verizon tests its FiOS network and network compoents here, consumers who want this service have to wait. Verizon continues to deploy fiber, but to provide TV service, it must obtain approval from each of Massachusetts' 351 cities and towns before it can deliver TV to any community. Recently, Verizon announced that its wouldn not persue any more local TV licenses until it completed those already in progress. On average, a TV license takes 15 months to obtain from a city or town.

This announcement triggered an April 18 newpaper article saying that Verizon was slowing its FiOS deployment. That article prompted one US Senator and one US Representative to, according to an April 21 article, demand that Verizon continue to complete the FiOS network. Verizon spokesman Phil claimed, both in the article and to me, that "we are not stopping or slowing down our FiOS build or our pursuit of franchises." It seems that the reporter confused the delay in persuing more TV licenses with a slowing down of fiber deployment.

Regardless of the state of fiber deployments and TV licenses in Verizon Labs' backyard, you'll learn a lot about how engineers simulate and entire network in the lab. The article will be online May 1.

Posted by Martin Rowe on April 26, 2007 | Comments (0)