Verizon Helped Grow Massachusetts Economy in 2014 With $331 Million Wireline Investment

BOSTON, April 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Massachusetts consumers, businesses and government agencies continued to benefit from Verizon's 2014 investment of more than $331 million in its industry-leading fiber-optic and wireline networks. 

In addition, Verizon Wireless invested $378 million across New England in 2014, which included enhancing coverage and capacity across the Commonwealth, and upgrading its network in Eastern and Central/Western Massachusetts.

In the past five years, Verizon has invested more than $2.7 billion in its wireline network in Massachusetts. Verizon Wireless has invested more than $4 billion in its network throughout New England since the company's inception in 2000.

"As the Bay State's communications, broadband and video needs grow more sophisticated each day, Verizon's strong networks and assets are uniquely positioned to meet those needs and enable future growth," said Allison Cole, region president for consumer and mass business. "Our network technology enables commerce to thrive, businesses to open new markets, students to attain knowledge from anywhere, and all of us to connect to what matters most.

The advantages of an all-fiber network to the Massachusetts small-business community are demonstrated in videos featuring two Verizon customers -- Bond and Associates and the Grafton Country Store.

Another example of the advantages of Verizon's all-fiber network is a continued partnership with business accelerator Mass Challenge, whose members received FiOS Internet service and mentoring from Verizon executives.

"In 2014 in Massachusetts, Verizon continued to grow its state-of-the-art fiber-optic network to more homes and businesses, modernize its world-class call centers, upgrade its fleet, and enhance training for its 8,000 highly skilled employees," said Cole.

Fiber-optic networks strengthen communities, and last year Verizon continued deployment of its 100 percent fiber-optic network, with its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services. At year's end, FiOS services were available to more than 1 million Massachusetts homes and businesses. Verizon has placed more than 18,000 miles of fiber optics in Massachusetts – enough to stretch to the state borders from Boston to Pittsfield 131 times (or stretch from Boston to London six times).

Verizon's major wireline infrastructure programs in 2014 included:

The Fastest, Most Reliable Internet Service Got Even Better in 2014

• Significantly raising the bandwidth bar with FiOS Quantum Internet.
  • SpeedMatch, offering upload speeds that match download speeds at no additional cost was one way Verizon said thank you to many of its FiOS customers. FiOS Quantum Internet upload speeds rival or exceed most download speeds offered by competitors. The ultrafast speed delivers technology that gives people the best way to upload photos and videos, send or back up files, conduct video chats and use multiple Internet devices simultaneously, among other bandwidth-intensive applications.
  • FiOS Quantum Gateway Router, which provides small businesses and consumers the fastest Wi-Fi available from any provider, with guest Wi-Fi and enhanced parental controls.

No More DVR Battles, and TV Went Everywhere

• FiOS Quantum TV gives customers more choices and control than ever before, including the ability to record up to 12 shows at once; pause and rewind live TV on any TV in the home; and store up to 200 hours of HD programs.
• The FiOS Mobile App offers 168 in-home channels, 88 out-of-home channels and 70,000 on-demand content features over select broadband-connected tablets or smartphones.
• FiOS TV Everywhere offers 89 channels over a broadband-connected PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
• FiOS TV's advanced, interactive search and navigation was upgraded to make it even easier for customers to find and enjoy what they want to watch.
• FiOS TV features the most video on demand, with 100,000-plus FiOS On Demand video titles to rent or own, plus premium on-demand content packages with sports, movie and international programming.

Bundles and More

• Verizon offers customers comprehensive choices, including month-to-month plans and multiyear bundles for small businesses and consumers.
• The company's FiOS Digital Voice home phone service offers many innovative calling features.

Investing in Superior Customer Experiences

• Verizon has improved phone service reliability for more than 800,000 customers by moving their service from copper to the company's advanced, all-fiber infrastructure. Fiber is less susceptible than copper to moisture and water damage and offers a better overall service experience. Nationwide, Verizon now serves more landline customers on its all-fiber infrastructure than on its legacy copper network.
• The company has launched a number of customer-experience management tools to provide an even better experience for its residential and small-business customers, ranging from a tech notification tool, which keeps customers updated on when a Verizon installation technician will arrive prior to their appointment; to mobile coach, which enables supervisors to work with reps in real time to better serve customers. These tools were developed with direct input from employees who use them daily.
• Customers can take advantage of Verizon's In-Home Agent application for automated self-service.

Thank You for Making Us No. 1 (Again)

Customers ranked Verizon Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Very Small Business Wireline Service in the J.D. Power "J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Business Wireline Satisfaction Study." And, for the second straight year, FiOS Internet was rated No. 1 in the 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index. In addition, customers made Verizon FiOS Internet the recipient of PC Magazine's Readers' Choice Award for the ninth consecutive year.

Enterprise Business Solutions Tailored to Meet Client Needs

Verizon Enterprise Solutions oversees all of Verizon's solutions for large-business, wholesale and government customers in Massachusetts and globally, including a portfolio of cloud and IT, enterprise mobility, security and advanced communications offerings. Its key client segments include healthcare, manufacturing and automotive, financial services and large government agencies. In 2014, Verizon:

• Unveiled the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center, which offers global client organizations advanced detection and response capabilities to better manage and mitigate cyberthreats.
• Expanded its Verizon Financial Network to more than 50 new markets, services and data centers in Europe and North America to give trading firms and other financial institutions secure and on-demand access to markets and applications, in addition to increased flexibility and scalability.
• Converted five Verizon data centers that provide enterprise-class colocation services to carrier-neutral facilities, including locations in Boston; Denver; Elmsford, New York; Manassas, Virginia; and Seattle.
• Invested heavily in its cloud and networking services:
  • Released a new service model and a set of features and functionality for the company's cloud infrastructure and storage platform. Verizon Cloud now includes a variety of services tiers, onboarding and workload migration services, and several deployment options ranging from public cloud to private, on-premises cloud. Additionally, Verizon Cloud opened a Marketplace where enterprises can buy software-based IT services to run on top of Verizon's cloud infrastructure.
  • Launched Secure Cloud Interconnect service so that enterprises can use multiple clouds at once via Verizon's Private IP networking, including the Verizon Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, HP Helion Managed Cloud Service,  the Salesforce Customer Success Platform and Google Cloud Interconnect.
  • Received an Authority to Operate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), paving the way for U.S. government agencies to easily and securely migrate mission-critical workloads to the cloud.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with 108.6 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. A Dow 30 company with more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 176,200. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/.

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SOURCE Verizon