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Verizon has received its Final Cable Television (CATV) License (PDF) to operate in Boston, laying a new challenge to Comcast’s long-standing presence as the city’s only video service provider.
The license covers three Boston neighborhoods: Dorchester, the Dudley Square neighborhood in Roxbury and West Roxbury. At this point, the service provider had begun to hook up new customers with FiOS service, starting with its first TV customer in Dorchester.
Getting the signoff on the cable license means Verizon can begin selling FiOS service before the end of the year. Similar to Google’s Fiberhood, residents can order FiOS service by visiting www.verizon.com/BostonFios.
By granting this license to Verizon, the city anticipates future expansion of the service area to additional neighborhoods, with the first round expected to include Hyde Park, Mattapan, and other areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said in a release that “I look forward to working with Verizon to bring more choice and upgraded technology to Boston’s residents and businesses.”
Verizon had all but frozen its FiOS rollouts apart from markets where it had already previously established an agreement.
But all of that changed in April when Verizon and Boston announced a $300 million, 6-year partnership to build out fiber throughout the city.
Bob Mudge, EVP of strategic initiatives for Verizon, told FierceTelecom that having a multifaceted fiber network plan helped accelerate the Boston FiOS rollout.
“We announced in April that we thought there was a broader business case that was wireless, wireline and this fiber could serve a lot of our business needs and accelerated that from negotiations to selling in December,” Mudge said.
Streamlining installation processes
Over the past eight months, Verizon has been constructing their network and has already installed fiber necessary to offer service to 25,000 homes and businesses by the end of the...