Verizon Launches Major Push To Bring Internet, TV Services To Apartments, Condos

Verizon Communications Inc. on Wednesday launched a major campaign to expand its FiOS Internet and TV services to people living in apartments and condos.

The New York-based telecommunications company said the project would include sending business development executives and engineers to meet with condo/co-op associations and owners of apartment buildings to negotiate access agreements.

Verizon plans to concentrate sales efforts in those parts of the 16 states where it is building out its fiber-optic network. In the last six months of 2005, the company signed right-of-way agreements covering more than 57,000 units, executives said. The company estimates the potential market equals about a fifth of its customer base.

"We are intensifying our effort, begun last year, to get FiOS services into the MDUs (multi-dwelling units), and we expect this year to dwarf last year's MDU sales penetration," Eric Cevis, vice president of Verizon's Enhanced Communities group, said in a statement.

In delivering the service, new fiber or existing cabling and wiring can be used, Verizon said.The company also announced on Wednesday that it has completed the retrofitting of Huntington Landmark, a 1,238-unit senior citizens complex in Huntington Beach, Calif., with fiber optics. The deal included a limited marketing agreement with the owner to offer FiOS services to residents.

Verizon and other telecommunications companies are battling with cable operators to deliver to consumers what's called a "triple play," telephone, TV and Internet services in a single package.