Comcast and satellite providers in Plano, Texas, awoke to new competition in the video market from Verizon, as the telco made its FiOS TV service available there to about 22,000 households out of the 65,000 customers it already has in the city.
Plano has a total population of more than 250,000, so it will be some time yet before Comcast and the satellite providers are seriously challenged, but for Verizon, it’s a start. Additional expansion of the service area will take place throughout Plano during the second half of the year.
The launch of FiOS TV in Plano follows the passage just six months ago of a state-issued video franchise that expedited by about one year the time frame in which Verizon can offer residents of Plano and other local cities a competitive alternative to existing cable and satellite services.
Plano joins 16 other Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs as the first cities in Texas to receive Verizon’s new fiber-optic television service. By the end of the year, Verizon plans to make FiOS TV available to nearly 400,000 North Texas households, or a third of its landline customers in Texas.