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Verizon expands reach of low-cost Internet program Verizon has broadened the availability of Fios Forward, a low-cost broadband service for qualified households. The telco introduced the offering on a limited basis in April 2020. Verizon said Fios Forward is now available to any customers who qualify for the Lifeline government assistance program (i.e., if the home's income is 135% or less than the federal poverty guidelines, or if the household participates in one of several federal assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
Fios Forward is now available to new and existing Verizon customers who qualify for the low-cost broadband service.
(Image source: Verizon) Qualified customers have the option to sign up for one of the following Mix & Match Fios Home Internet plans:
Verizon said each of those tiers, all of which are uncapped, provides total savings of up to $20 per month. Customers on the Fios Forward program have the option to bring their own router or can receive one from Verizon, with the router fee costs waived for the first 60 days for new customers. Verizon noted that other qualified new customers would also be eligible for additional promotions and benefits, including up to 12 free months of Discovery+, the premium subscription VoD service from Discovery Communications that launched nationwide today. Verizon, which ended Q3 2020 with 6.11 million Fios Internet customers, has not released the number of qualified customers and subscribed to the Fios Forward program. However, Verizon did see an uptick in Lifeline-related sign-ups after first introducing the program and April and saw that trend continue when the company extended the offer through the end of 2020, a Verizon spokesperson said. Verizon's new program compares with some low-cost broadband programs offered by cable operators that cost less and deliver much less speed. For example, Comcast has Internet Essentials, a program introduced in 2011 that provides speeds of up to 25 Mbit/s downstream and 3 Mbit/s upstream starting at $9.95 per month. Cox Communications' Connect2Compete service provides a similar level of broadband service to qualified households for $9.95 per month.
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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading, special to Broadband World News |
The XGS-PON platform Frontier selected from Nokia is upgradable to 25-Gig PON 'with basically an optics change,' says Scott Mispagel, Frontier's SVP of national architecture and engineering.
Frontier has hooked up with Nokia to connect about 100,000 homes to XGS-PON technology amid a grander plan to have FTTP deployed to 10 million locations by the end of 2025.
AT&T CEO John Stankey has challenged his execs to explore what it would take to expand AT&T's plan to build FTTP to 30 million locations by 2025. 'Execution and performance' is all that stands in the way, he says.
SCTE, the cable industry's standards-setting organization, has approved standards for enclosures and modules for Generic Access Platform (GAP) nodes designed to support DOCSIS, PON and wireless access technologies.
Financial support for winning bids from more than a dozen smaller broadband players will be disbursed in 120 monthly payments, starting at the end of this month.
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 WebinarsWednesday, October 6, 2021
11:00 a.m. New York / 4:00 p.m. London Cloud-Native Containerized Solutions for PON: How to Make Them Work and Why You Should Consider Them
The demand for high-speed broadband services and hyperconnectivity has driven massive surges in network data usage like never before. Due to this trend, the networks of communications service providers (CSPs) are increasingly overburdened. Service providers need to optimize their networks to scale service delivery efficiently, while maximizing the opportunity to innovate at a rapid pace. Learn how cloud-native containerized solutions can position CSP networks for long-term evolution and sustainable growth. Hear practical steps and flexible options for implementing a cloud-native PON solution in your network. Discover how to maximize operational resources and make way for enhanced applications, innovations and new use cases. Topics to be covered include:
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