Verizon's NYC government contracts face scrutiny over claims of not meeting FiOS goals

Verizon's troubles in New York City continue to mount as Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) is requiring City Hall to approve any business local agencies do with the service provider, a measure focused on getting it to fulfill its goal to wire the city with FiOS fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service. Mayor de Blasio told NYC commissioners and government agency leaders in June that they have to tell the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications about any major contract negotiations they conduct with Verizon and other service providers that do business in the city.

Maya Wiley, de Blasio's general counsel, who is in charge of the city's broadband strategy, will make the final approval of any discretionary deal. Such a requirement is a big hit to Verizon, which has generated nearly $650 million in voice and data revenues with NYC's government agencies since 2010. Wiley said that they would like to work with Verizon, but they want assurance that the company will be a good corporate actor. "We'll treat Verizon fairly," Wiley said. "But where we have the power to make decisions, we will make decisions that benefit good corporate actors. They have to demonstrate to us that they are good corporate actors if they want us to use our discretion in ways that benefit them."