Verizon confirmed today what many analysts have been predicting for some time. They intend to abandon new DSL service in markets where their FTTH FiOS product is available. New customers who live in a FiOS territory and want broadband from Verizon will no longer be able to choose DSL as an option.
The news was revealed on their quarterly earnings conference call with financial analysts. It’s really no surprise, given the ascent of FiOS and the descent of DSL for Verizon. Indeed, Verizon actually looses DSL customers every quarter, and if not for FiOS, would have negative growth for broadband.
For 1Q12, which ended March 31, 2012, Verizon added 104K net broadband connections, 193K of which came from FiOS. Do the math and that means Verizon lost 89K DSL customers, most of which probably came courtesy of their DOCSIS 3.0 equipped cable competitors. Verizon’s future is very much about FiOS and LTE, not DSL and legacy wireline voice. FiOS revenue now accounts for 63% of Verizon’s total consumer wireline revenues.
Their residential FiOS digital voice product, a FTTH-delivered VoIP wireline voice service, added 414K voice subscribers last quarter. Their legacy residential TDM wireline voice service lost 562K access lines in the same time period.
So bye-bye DSL in FiOS territories. For customers who don’t want full blown FTTH, Verizon can also conceivably push them towards HomeFusion, their fixed broadband wireless product delivered via 4G LTE (at least in the markets where it is available). Or will Verizon be content in pushing those customers to their new cable ‘coopetitors’, as long as they choose to take 4G LTE mobile broadband from them?
New Verizon broadband customers will have options. Those options just no longer will include DSL. Makes you wonder what Verizon intends to do with their non-FiOS markets, where DSL is their only wireline broadband option.
What do you think?
- Let them die a slow death, while pushing new customers to cable or HomeFusion
- Sell them off
- Upgrade those DSL markets to a FTTN option and use VDSL2 or some other next-generation DSL
- None of the Above
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
