Verizon Spurs Internet Service Wars in F.C.

Verizon began its fiber optic Internet-service invasion of Cox and Starpower-occupied Falls Church this week, determined to seize a large portion of market share in one of the first tests of a new capability it is gradually rolling out nationwide.

Kicking off an aggressive marketing campaign with a gala event to demonstrate its new services to local citizens at the State Theatre Sunday, Verizon will go head-to-head with Cox and Starpower to win the loyalties, and business, of City of Falls Church residents and businesses.

While the City's tech-savvy residents (the City has the second highest percentage of college graduates of any jurisdiction in the U.S.) hope to enjoy the benefits of a fierce competition, Cox and Starpower officials told the News-Press this week they have no intention of standing idly by while Verizon tries to elbow in on their market.

Because of Falls Church's small size and the demographics of its population, it has been singled out as a launching pad for new high-tech rollouts not only by Verizon, but earlier by Starpower, as well, when it began its move into the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Verizon is poised to begin this week digging its fiber optic cable to the residences of any citizens it can sign up, even though it awaits the completion of negotiations with City of Falls Church officials for a franchise agreement to provide cable television service. Its broadband fiber optic cable will offer telephone and faster Internet service than anything more traditional cable can provide, Verizon officials explained at the State Theatre Sunday. They set up a couple dozen computers at the site to demonstrate the speed and versatility of its system to prospective customers.

But Starpower's Gary Houston told the News-Press yesterday that his company has just upgraded its service to customers to 10 megabits download and 800 kilobits upload, an upgrade now available throughout its system. "We provide the fastest residential modem service," he said, "and provide one-stop shopping for cable TV, phone and Internet."

Houston said that Starpower "has been competing since the day it was launched," and "has brought competition to a lot of communities."

Cox spokesman Gary McCollum said the competitive advantage his company has is the fact "it has the best service at the best price."

"What Verizon is promising is what we're already providing. They're promising something down the road, we offer the future now," he said. "They're not offering anything that we're not already or will do."

He also noted that Verizon's measured roll out indicates that they're cautiously seeing if it will work, while Cox has a track record of "having been at it."

"We have long-lasting, trusted relationships with our customers," he said.

Still, Verizon spokesmen at the State Theatre Sunday insisted their fiber optic service will give customers a faster and more flexible service that will, among other things, not get slowed down by heavy use of any particular cable line, since each of their fiber cables link separately and directly to the data source. Customers can select from a menu of speeds when they sign up for the service.

Verizon representatives would not comment on the state of negotiations for a cable TV franchise for City of Falls Church officials, except to say that they are well underway.