If Verizon Communications Inc. hasn’t already started wiring your city or town with its FiOS fiber-optic TV and broadband service, chances are you won’t get it.
p
Where it’s available, FiOS usually provides the only competition for cable TV apart from satellite service. Studies have shown that its entry into an area leads to lower cable prices, though FiOS itself has not been undercutting cable TV prices substantially.
p
But Verizon is nearing the end of its program to replace copper phone lines with optical fibers that provide much higher Internet speeds and TV service. Its focus is now on completing the network in the communities where it’s already secured franchises, the rights to sell TV service that rivals cable, said spokeswoman Heather Wilner.
p
That means Verizon will continue to pull fiber to homes in Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia — projects that will take years to complete — but leaves such major cities as Baltimore and downtown Boston without FiOS.
p
Verizon is still negotiating for franchises in some smaller communities, mainly in New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, but it is not working on securing franchises for any major urban areas, Wilner said. For instance, it’s halted negotiations for the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va.
p
Verizon never committed to bringing FiOS to its entire local-phone service area. It has introduced FiOS in 16 states, but the deployment is concentrated on the East Coast, and Verizon is selling off most of its service areas in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Its stated goal was to make FiOS available to 18 million households by the end of 2010, and it’s on track to reach or exceed that.
p
That will still leave nearly half of its service area without fiber. And as Verizon has signaled this month that it’s focusing on communities where it already has franchises,…