PROVIDENCE – Verizon Communications Inc. will bring FiOS, its popular new fiber-optic telephone, television and high-speed Internet service, to Foster residents in the 647 telephone exchange next year, state Rep. Nicholas Gorham has announced.

FiOS is already available to those Foster residents who are part of the 397 telephone exchange.

Gorham, a Republican who represents Coventry, Foster and Glocester, called the expansion of FiOS “exciting news for the residents of Foster.”

“We have a beautiful town, and one of the only drawbacks has been the inability to receive the full panoply of information services, such as high-speed Internet, as does the rest of Rhode Island,” he said. “Fortunately, Verizon has stepped up to the plate.”

Verizon is the first telecommunications company to offer a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network on a widespread scale, according to Donna Cupelo, Verizon’s regional president for Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The work next year will be the continuation of a project on which Verizon has said it expects to spend $86 million in Rhode Island in 2008. (READ MORE) The company has not announced the anticipated cost of next year’s FiOS expansion.

But the company said last month that national subscriber growth for FiOS slowed in the second quarter. Verizon added 176,000 new subscribers in the last three months, compared to 263,000 new subscribers in the first three months of 2008. FiOS now has nearly 1.4 million subscribers.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), a Dow 30 company, delivers broadband and other communications services through its Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireline divisions. For more information about Verizon and its Rhode Island operations, visit www.verizon.com/ri.