Keeping fiber from the Yanks

Verizon's FTTH deployments have finally made it out of sleepy Keeler, Texas, and into its first sizable markets. The company today announced it is deploying in Tampa, Fla., and Huntington Beach, Calif.

A pattern is emerging: Verizon's deployments are all in former GTE territories. Verizon has committed to deploying in nine states, passing 1 million homes by the end of the year, and at the rate Verizon is going it is questionable whether any of those states will be in its original Bell Atlantic home turf. In fact, with sizable chunks of California, including the L.A. metro area, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, Verizon could feasibly bypass its core Northeasern states entirely with its new fiber rollout.

There are many reasons to deploy in the GTE territories, most of them regulatory. Since the GTE territories were never part of Ma Bell, they don't face the regulatory hurdles or scrutiny that Verizon's RBOC territories face. For that reason Verizon has tended to launch new services and trials in GTE territories first ever since the merger. But if Verizon keeps up with its current deployment pattern, it makes you wonder if these new-fangled services will ever make it beyond the Georgetown, Texases, or the Sandpoint, Idahos.

E-mail me at kfitchard@primediabusiness.com