This might just get me to switch from cable modem -- if the price is right!
Verizon Offering 20 Times Faster Internet Connections
The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jul 19, 2004
Verizon Communications Inc. said Monday that Tampa Bay area homes and businesses will be able to access the Internet at rates up to 20 times faster than the company's current high-speed Internet offering.
New York-based Verizon has begun building fiber-optic cable to homes and businesses in New Tampa, and plans to have the fiber reach about 100,000 homes and businesses throughout Hillsborough County by the end of the year.
With fiber - which transmits voice, data and video by a faster-moving pulse of light instead of electricity like Verizon's aging, copper-wire network - people will be able to download items at speeds up to 30 megabytes per second. Verizon's current high-speed Internet, digital subscriber line (DSL) service, downloads at a maximum of 1 1/2 megabytes per second.
The increased speed will allow the largest U.S. local telephone company to offer people Internet-based telephone service and video, including cable television to compete with Bright House Networks by sometime in 2005.
Verizon plans to spend about $100 million to replace its copper-wire network with fiber in the Bay area, said Alan Ciamporcero, Verizon southeast region president.
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