Verizon Communications filed a formal application last week with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for a video franchise covering the Fort Wayne market in the northeast corner of the state.
The company plans to offer Verizon FiOS TV service to residents in Fort Wayne and New Haven starting next year, pending the state's approval. The company said it is building a video-hub office in Fort Wayne.
By the end of 2007, Verizon also plans to make its digital-subscriber-line Internet service available to 70,000 households in 69 rural communities in southern Indiana that do not already have DSL, as well as four communities in northern Indiana.
In addition, Verizon said, it will begin hiring 100 additional fiber technicians in January to install FiOS TV and Internet services in the state.
Also on the hiring front, the regional Bell operating company said it will hire 110 employees in northern Virginia to deploy and install fiber-optic-based Internet and TV services. The company said it is focusing on cable-splicing and outside-plant technicians.
Verizon also announced that it was awarded video franchises in Montgomery County, Md.; Port Richey, Fla.; Dedham, Mass.; and Mount Kisco, N.Y.
And Verizon FiOS TV is now available in Greater Philadelphia, to 80,000 households in parts of 35 communities in Pennsylvania’s Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. The company expects that number to increase to 100,000 by year-end.
In Delaware, Verizon plans to offer FiOS TV to 13,000 households in the southern New Castle County area by the end of the year.
