Coming Soon: Verizon FiOS, An Alternative To Time Warner

A new Internet, TV and phone provider is coming to Brooklyn: Verizon is slowly laying fiber-optic cable in preparation for making FiOS services available in the neighborhood. 

Historically, western Brooklyn has had just one major cable retailer, Time Warner Cable. But in the summer of 2008, New York City and Verizon made a TV franchise agreement that said Verizon would provide their FiOS services in all five boroughs by 2014. For the first time, there will be competition in the cable television market. 

As companies like Verizon started providing Internet services too, the revenue earned made it financially possible to compete with other cable companies. 

“We were exploring how to achieve that competition [and] at the same time Verizon was starting to talk about how to do competition and how it should be going forward and how it should be entering the cable television market,” said Bruce Regal, Senior Counsel of the New York City Law Department.

“For how many years, or forever, the city or the residents really only had one choice, whether it’s Time Warner in certain boroughs or Cablevision in other boroughs," said Regal. "That was the only choice they had and with those two companies, their service areas did not overlap so people did not have the choice.”

Regal said FiOS is being rolled out gradually over six years, though progress is moving quickly in the neighborhood.

John Bonomo, director of media relations at Verizon, said the company was already "in the process of installing and laying the all-fiber infrastructure" for both FiOS Internet and FiOS TV in Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens.

Residents will gradually get access to FiOS services this year but it will likely take at least six months in some areas, said Bonomo.

One resident in Boerum Hill, Ilene Jaroslaw, has already been enjoying the use of Verizon’s broadband FiOS services since November 24.

“I can’t say how happy I was to say goodbye to Time Warner,” she said in an email. Jaroslaw and her family have Verizon cable television and landline services. 

Other residents are just happy to have another choice. 

Louise Connolly, whose family has been residing in Cobble Hill since November, said they were not impressed by the Internet providers at all when they first moved in.

“ You have to pay so much money to get decent Internet and it’s still only average,” she said. 

“The more choice the better," she said. "It’s crazy here there’s no choice, unbelievable.”

Some residents are hoping the competition drives costs down. Tucker Woods, a Cobble Hill resident since 2005, said he pays $229 per month for Time Warner Cable and would welcome a cheaper alternative.

A digital TV, broadband Internet and digital home phone plan from Time Warner costs $124.85 a month. FiOS TV, Internet and unlimited calling home phone plan costs $94.99. 

Private single-home residences will have an easier time getting access to FiOS because once the cables are laid, all a homeowner has to do is contact Verizon and set up an appointment to install the cables in their home. 

Townhouses and apartment buildings get a little trickier.

“When you come to a larger apartment with 100 or 200 units then we need to deal with the landlord or the property owner or the realty company that owns the building," said Bonomo. "We need to get permission to come into the building and then once we’re in the building, how do we get the service up to the 12th floor?"

Landlords won’t be able to prevent Verizon from installing their cables, however. According to the New York public service law 228, any tenant that has an interest in using a cable providers’ services authorized by the city, can receive it.

So far, Bonomo says FiOS sales are high.

“It’s a product that’s selling like hotcakes,”  he said.

Harriet Novet, Regional Vice President of Public Affairs at Time Warner Cable’s East Region/NYC, said this is not the first time that Time Warner Cable has faced competition, adding that competition only makes a company stronger. 

“We have been operating in Brooklyn for over a dozen years and we’ve had competition, all kinds of competition including people putting dishes on their rooftop and people go to Netflix or they go to the Internet," said Novet. "We work very hard to make sure every customer experience is a good one."

Chris Morgan, a resident of Cobble Hill for over eight years, wished that he had known sooner about Verizon intending to provide FiOS services in the neighborhood. He is currently using Time Warner for cable, phone and Internet. 

“We have only had the service for a few weeks, but we weren’t thrilled with [it]," he said. "When the cable modem was installed they didn’t leave any information with us.”

Morgan will probably not switch to FiOS at the end of the year when FiOS becomes available though -- his family has already spent money on Time Warner.

“I would definitely like the option of FiOS,” he said, adding that their services are faster than cable. “It would have been better if they could be more forthcoming on their plans. We switched to cable internet only recently because we’d gotten tired of waiting for any news on FiOS availability.”