Verizon has applied for its first franchise in New jersey under the state's new video franchise law.
Verizon has said it would spend $1.5 billion to build a fiber network in the state and hopes to have its FiOS video service available to 3.5 million New Jersey residents by 2008.
It says it will begin offering service to the state in by year's end if its application is approved.
Verizon launched FiOS a year ago in Texas and currently offers it in parts of that state, plus California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia.
Verizon has pushed for a federal franchise reform law, but it has gotten stuck in the Senate over the issue of network neutrality and is a long shot for passage in a lame duck session after the November elections.
