New York City Council to Examine Verizon’s FiOS Rollout

For the better part of a year, New York City officials and Verizon spokespeople have been publicly debating the rollout of Verizon’s promised FiOS rollout across all five boroughs. Verizon says they delivered FiOS to everyone who wanted it in all of NYC by the end of November 2014 (they had promised by the end of June, 2014, so they admitted to being late). NYC, however, has contended that more than 40,000 official requests for FiOS service have gone unanswered and that Verizon hasn’t fulfilled its end of the FiOS rollout agreement.

The disagreement will go to another level Oct 14, when the NYC Council has an official oversight hearing on Verizon’s progress in completing the FiOS rollout. Committee on Technology Chair James Vacca, along with Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises Chair Donovan Richards and Committee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Vincent Gentile will hear testimony from advocates pushing for a completed rollout along with Verizon to explain the delay. The Council will present its own findings on customer concerns, which are consistent with the results of a Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) audit of the franchise agreement.