Despite being surrounded by some of the first communities in the country to get FIOS, and a relatively dense population core crying out for FIOS to be rolled out in the District proper, Verizon was dragging their feet for the last few years about rolling out the high speed service to DC residents. Well that wait is no more.
The District and Verizon Communications have reached an agreement to bring the company’s FiOS high-speed Internet service to the city.
Eric Richardson, director of D.C. Office of Cable Television, said the agreement requires approval by the mayor’s office and the D.C. Council, a process he said could be completed by the end of the year. Richardson said negotiations took nine months, less time than it has taken the District to work out previous cable franchise agreements.
As FIOS is a tv delivery platform, it often runs afoul of monopolistic cable tv agreements that cities have established with ‘cable’ companies. Whether or not these rollouts are done within the franchise agreements that exist (likely) or the result of total deregulation of the cable / Internet providing rules (ha) is yet to be established, but it doesn’t seem likely Verizon is going in anyplace where they don’t have a few regulatory barriers to entry in place already to prevent competitors.
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