Verizon plans new push for FiOS services in next two years

Verizon (NYSE:VZ) COO Lowell McAdam, in an interview with a south Florida newspaper, said the company is hoping to resume a more aggressive rollout of its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services soon.

The rollout was slowed due to the housing bust and economic recession, but McAdam said that Verizon still hopes to get fiber past as many as 20 million homes in the next couple of years. It currently has a footprint of 16 million homes with a subscriber base of 3.7 million FiOS TV and 4.3 million FiOS Internet customers.

McAdam, who is set to take over for Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg later this year, said the telco will continue to take a cautious approach to continued buildouts, and will focus on winning more MDU subscriptions.

And, for the record, don't look for Verizon to follow Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) into the arena of content ownership: "That's not us," he said. "I frankly don't want to have to deal with Charlie Sheen. We don't own sports teams for that same reason. We work with Disney, ABC, ESPN. But I don't feel the need to own any of them."

For more:
- see this FierceTelecom article
- Tampa Tribune has this Q&A article
- and this article

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