Looking to directly take on Comcast, Verizon says it will invest more than $300 million over six years to up the competition for broadband and entertainment services in Boston. Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the partnership with Verizon yesterday to replace the copper-based infrastructure with a fiber-optic network platform across the city.
“Boston is moving faster than our current infrastructure can support, and a modern fiber-optic communications platform will make us a next-level city,” Walsh says. “Additionally, it is a priority to ensure that every resident has expanded access to broadband and increasing competition is critical to reaching that goal.”
The city has agreed to provide an expedited permitting process to encourage the build, according to Verizon. Construction will be completed by neighborhood to reportedly concentrate resources and provide an expedited timeline. Initially, the project will begin in Dorchester, West Roxbury and the Dudley Square neighborhood of Roxbury in 2016, followed by Hyde Park, Mattapan and other areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
The agreement also is said to offer the potential for improved wireless services in the city by enabling Verizon to attach wireless equipment to city streetlights and utility poles. And to take on Boston’s notorious traffic woes, the partnership also involves a “Smart Cities” trial that will address traffic safety and congestion along the Massachusetts Avenue Vision Zero Priority Corridor. “The city and Verizon will experiment with sensors and advanced traffic signal control technology to increase safety, measure bicycle traffic, improve public transit vehicle flow, and decrease congestion,” according to Verizon.
