California appears set to start offering statewide franchises for video, after the state Assembly approved the Digital Infrastructure and Video Choice Act Thursday night. The state Senate approved the measure the previous evening. This bill now awaits the signature of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Verizon, meanwhile, is continuing to roll out its FiOS fiber optic network, and continues to issue a separate press release for every few hundred additional homes it can offer service to. The latest communities to get FiOS are in Indiana, Massachusetts, and the state of Washington.
FiOS already touched down in Fort Wayne, Ind., and in nearby New Haven a year ago, but Verizon announced it has extended the reach of its fiber network there to an unspecified number of homes in an area that encompasses just a few square miles. Verizon now claims 100,000 homes passed in the Fort Wayne area, and says it will have 115,000 homes passed by the end of the year, a guarantee of more press releases about FiOS in Fort Wayne.
In Washington, FiOS services are now available to an additional 215 homes in the Education Hill neighborhood of Redmond. FiOS now passes 7,700 homes in Redmond. Verizon aims to pass 12,000 in the city. At a rate of 215 homes in Redmond per press release, we can expect precisely 20 more announcements from Verizon about extending service there.
In Massachusetts, Verizon has extended FiOS to the towns of Hamilton, Stoneham, Wakefield and Wenham, for a total of 10 communities in the state.
Verizon has also secured new franchises from the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester, all in Massachusetts, which together represent another 6,700 households. Verizon also recently received a franchise from Clarkstown, the company’s twelfth in New York State.