- Image courtesy of Verizon
Verizon next month will more than double the speeds of several of its FiOS Internet tiers – and introduce two new tiers with even faster speeds.
This comes as FiOS and cable companies battle for residential households with a growing number of wireless devices.
Verizon has touted the fiber-optic system it uses, but cable companies have worked to keep up by pushing more bandwidth through copper.
The new FiOS Internet portfolio will feature download/upload speed tiers of 50/25 and 150/65 megabits per second as well as two new tiers of 75/35 and 300/65. The latter speed is double that of FiOS Internet’s current top speed of 150/35 megabits per sond. Verizon says it’s the nation’s fastest residential Internet speed used on a large scale.
In addition, Verizon will continue to offer its entry-level speed of 15/5 megabits per second. The other speeds are are 25/25, 35/35 50/20 and 150/35. Pricing for the new portfolio will be announced next month.
The new speeds, offered in stand-alone and bundled packages, come as more households stream video and use other applications that strain bandwidth.
Bob Mudge, president of Verizon’s consumer and mass market business unit, characterized the broadband speed increases as a “societal and technological necessity,” as secure network applications enable consumers to enjoy a “borderless lifestyle” in which they can connect to the content they care about, anytime and anywhere..
“Our top FiOS speed will be twice as fast as anything America has ever seen,” said Mike Ritter, chief marketing officer for Verizon’s consumer and mass market business unit. “High-speed Internet no longer is just for techies, as more than half of our residential consumers already use at least a 20 Mbps Internet connection. Streaming online video on an all-fiber-optic connection providing faster speeds is better and more reliable during peak Internet usage hours.”
“As recently as 2005, video was less than 10 percent of Web traffic,” said Ritter. “By the end of this year, we expect it to be 50 percent, growing to 90 percent in just a few years.”
Today, the average home has seven Internet-connected devices. It is estimated that by 2015, the average home will have between nine and 15 Internet-connected devices, Ritter said.
More than 13.7 million customers in parts of nine northeast and mid-Atlantic states plus parts of Florida, Texas, California and the District of Columbia can order FiOS Internet. The total is slated to grow to 18 million.
The company has slowed growth of FiOS and walked away from demands of some larger cities for additional services.
