FiOS TV getting small-business traction

“We are seeing TV service expanding into other work areas, production areas, work rooms – we are seeing it become more commonplace now,” Beck said. “I think that we live in a news and information world, and I think that businesses want to bring that news and information to their employees as well as to our customers.”

Malone says he’s paying a few dollars more a month for FiOS TV than he did for DISH but also is getting many more channels than the individual programming packages (family, sports, etc.) that DISH offered him as a business customer. “Now I can show football and basketball games on the weekends when the men are bringing in their cars, and Discovery Channel or something else when women and children are there during the week,” Malone said.

Verizon now sells FiOS to business users concurrent with its residential sales, as the network is rolled out, although the business sales are managed by a different sales group, Beck said. The service bundles include voice, FiOS TV service and broadband at speeds of 50 megabits per second downstream and 20 Mb/s upstream.

“From the business side, we have the opportunity to bundle in security suites, domain name opportunities, and either static or dynamic IP address options,” Beck said. He admitted Verizon is just getting started on some fronts, learning from its customers as the service gains more traction.

“This is definitely the platform for selling managed services,” Beck said. “We are really excited about the customers and their attitudes toward the product and our take rate. So we are taking the opportunity to learn from customers and how they will use the product going forward.”