FTTP innovations aid Verizon’s push into big MDUs

The announcement this week that Verizon Communications was installing its FiOS fiber-to-the-premises network in its largest apartment complex to date is emblematic of what the company has planned for New York City and elsewhere, according to Eric Cevis, vice president of Verizon Enhanced Communities, which handles multi-dwelling units.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the apartments Verizon announced plans for this week, are located on 80 acres in Manhattan and contain 11,232 apartments. This is the largest MDU development Verizon has signed up for FiOS so far.

In most of the 17 states in which Verizon is rolling out FiOS, 25% of households are in MDUs, Cevis said, but in New York State, about 35% of the footprint is MDUs, and New York City accounts for 25% of that – a segment Cevis said Verizon can now more aggressively pursue.

“It’s a matter of technology evolution,” Cevis said. “We have been in the game for a period of time, and some of the costs have come down as we have scaled the program. The costs have come down with the volume and with technology improvements. New York has been the most lucrative marketplace in terms of the number of units we have under contract. A larger percentage of MDUs sit in that area.”

Those improvements include smaller optical network terminals (ONTs) – the customer premises devices – as well as fiber optic cable that can withstand more bending to accommodate the tighter spaces found particularly in older apartment buildings.

“Each year we have reduced the size of the ONTs,” Cevis said. In addition, Verizon is now able to rack-mount and recess the units to reduce space requirements.

The reduced bend-radius fiber, now available from multiple vendors, enables Verizon to more rapidly install individual apartments and do it at less expense, Cevis said.

Verizon also is seeing more eagerness on the part of landlords, as they become more familiar with FiOS and what it can do.

“We are finding them to be very eager,” Cevis said. “Initially I think there was a lack of awareness, a lot of questions about what we were going to do. Building owners had questions about the technology and space requirements. Now they are seeing FiOS as an amenity; it’s like granite countertops in the buildings now.”

Having FiOS is particularly attractive for some typical apartment dwellers including recent college graduates, single people and couples without children, Cevis said. And in the current housing market, some people are renting longer and want the experience to be better.

Verizon also is getting more creative in its marketing efforts. Cevis said the company negotiates with landlords to be allowed to do more marketing on premises, in order to get higher penetration rates.

“We also do what we call ‘Event in a box,’ where we host a party in the apartment of one tenant who has FiOS and for every friend who signs up at the party, we give the tenant a few dollars,” Cevis said. Similarly, leasing agents can be rewarded for signing up FiOS customers.