22 years after Verizon fiber promise, millions have only DSL or wireless

A 22-year-old Verizon promise to bring fiber Internet or "comparable technology" to its entire service area in Pennsylvania has instead left more than two million homes with nothing but slower DSL or wireless service. In 1993, Verizon predecessor Bell signed an agreement with state regulators in which it committed "to deploy the technologies necessary to provide universal broadband availability in 2015. In order to meet this commitment, Bell plans to deploy a broadband network using fiber optics or other comparable technology that is capable of supporting services requiring bandwidth of at least 45 megabits per second or its equivalent." In exchange, Verizon was allowed to charge higher phone rates. But in 2015, at least 2.1 million Pennsylvania households in Verizon's phone territory do not have access to the company's fiber network.

"The fiber network is available to approximately 2.1 million premises (which includes residential and business). The vast majority of the remaining households have either DSL or wireless LTE broadband options available to them," a Verizon spokesperson said. Verizon says it has met all its obligations, though. "Verizon’s commitments have always been to make broadband service (as defined in the Chapter 30 statute) universally available to its urban, suburban and rural customers by year-end 2015, and Verizon is on track to meet those commitments," Verizon said.