PROVIDENCE – Verizon Communications today filed an application with the R.I. Division of Public Utilities and Carriers seeking a franchise to provide its fiber-optic-based FiOS TV service to 12 cities and towns across the state.
Included in the application are Cranston, Providence, North Providence and Johnston; Foster and Scituate; Charlestown, Hopkinton and Richmond; and Narragansett, South Kingstown and Westerly.
Verizon said it hopes to begin offering FiOS TV later this year to some of the 158,000 households in those 12 communities, which comprise the state’s cable-service areas 2, 3 and 8.
The company noted that it also is in the process of seeking state approval to offer TV service this spring in cable area 6, which includes Coventry, East Greenwich, Exeter, North Kingstown, Warwick, West Greenwich and West Warwick.
Verizon has been installing its digital all-fiber-optic network in those areas, and already sells its FiOS high-speed Internet service in Coventry, East Greenwich, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Warwick and parts of Providence.
Over the past 10 years, the company has invested more than $700 million in its Rhode Island infrastructure. “This is not only good for consumers but for our membership,” said Bill McGowan, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2323. “Verizon is adding new union jobs as the result of this multiyear investment of bringing fiber directly to homes and businesses.
Verizon said it has brought another 300 jobs to the state with its Fiber Solutions Center, which provides FiOS customer care and technical support for the New England region.
FiOS TV is available in 37 Massachusetts communities and in California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), based in New York, is a provider of broadband and other wireless and wireline communications to 59 million mass-market, business, government and wholesale customers nationwide. A Dow 30 company, it has 242,000 employees and annual operating revenue of $88 billion. Additional information is available at www.verizon.com.
