Taking its battle against cable operators into Virginia, Verizon
Communications has secured a video franchise agreement
with the town of Herndon.
The 15-year pact, which was unanimously approved by the Town Council, allows
the regional telecom carrier to offer its Fios TV service to 22,000
residents over a new fiber-to- the-home
Verizon will pay a franchise fee of 5 percent of gross subscriber revenues,
plus a governmental grant of 3 percent of gross subscriber revenues. It
will also provide financial and technical support for Herndon Community
Television and other local access channels.
“The Washington metro area is one of the fastest-growing areas in the
country, and it’s a primary market for Verizon,” Harry J. Mitchell, a
Verizon spokesman, told internetnews.com. “It’s also a primary market
for competitors like Comcast and Cox.”
In nearby Maryland, Verizon has applied for franchise agreements in Howard
County and the city of Bowie. It talking with several other cities and
counties in Maryland and Virginia and expects formal applications to be
filed in the near future, Mitchell said.
Fios TV will provide hundreds of digital video and music channels,
high-definition programming, video-on-demand content, an interactive
programming guide. Verizon recently signed a
content deal with Turner Broadcasting System and is with other content
providers.
The Herndon deal is similar to pacts Verizon has negotiated with cities and
towns in California, Florida and Texas.
But at time that it is pursuing the time-consuming process of hammering out
terms at the local level, Verizon is also pushing for state and federal
regulatory changes that would streamline the process for rolling out
video-over-fiber.
In Texas, Verizon and SBC Communications successfully
lobbied state lawmakers to pass a bill that would grant it a statewide
video franchise.
The measure was passed in a special session over the objections of cable
companies, which argued that it provides telecoms with an unfair edge.
A final version of the bill, which will reconcile differences in the House
and Senate versions, is being worked out, said Gene Acuna, SBC spokesman. The governor is expected to sign it.
