"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - news) will begin selling video over fiber optic lines to homes and businesses in 2005, part of a long-term strategy to fight cable companies on their own turf before they erode too much of Verizon's traditional telephone business.
While the first video services Verizon will offer will mimic those available from cable and satellite television services today, Verizon executives say the company will eventually move into higher-technology formats that could offer far more options to viewers.
"We have a huge opportunity," Paul Lacouture, Verizon's president of network services, told Reuters. Fiber optics "allows us to get beyond parity with cable and get to a video product that will be different from the traditional 150 channels on cable and satellite."
The largest U.S. local phone company outlined the plans as part of its strategy to spend $1 billion on laying the foundation for a fiber optic network connecting homes and businesses in nine states. The company has committed to making the new network available to one million homes and businesses by the end of the year, with another two million added next year."
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May 19, 2004, 10:29 PM
