Verizon Fios hits 1 million subscriber mark

CHICAGO--Verizon has signed up its one-millionth Fios subscriber, CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Wednesday during his keynote speech here at the NXTcomm tradeshow.

Verizon's been building its Fios all-fiber network throughout its territory for the past three years. The network takes fiber directly to people's door step, and provides near limitless bandwidth that can be used to deliver a triple play of services including high-speed Internet connectivity, telephone service, and TV. The company already offers Internet service that runs at 50 megabits per second. And it's testing service at 100Mpbs.

While AT'T has opted to only take fiber into the neighborhood and use existing copper lines to deliver service to homes, Verizon believes the all-fiber network will give it the headroom it needs to ensure growth for the future.

But it's been a costly endeavor. Verizon plans to spend $18 billion through 2010 on the new network. But the first fruits of its labor appear to be blooming. At the end of the first quarter of 2007, Verizon reported that it had signed up 864,000 Fios customers with a penetration rate of 16 percent. And now it's hit the 1 million subscriber mark. Seidenberg also said the company now has close to half a million Fios TV subscribers. The company reported it had 348,000 Fios TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2007.

By 2010, Verizon expects to have between 6 and 7 million Fios Internet subscribers.

I'll be taking a deeper look at Verizon's Fios service in a feature that will be published tomorrow. So stay tuned.