Flexing its FTTH muscle, Verizon announced the availability of a synchronous 20 Mbps service for FiOS subscribers. The service will be initially offered in the tri state market of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The 20/20 service will include a security suite and 1 GB of online storage for $65 month.
The service is a clear competitive escalation with cable modems, utilizing the upstream bandwidth of 20 Mbps as a significant differentiator. Cable modem upstream speeds rarely rise above 1.5 Mbps. The increased upstream speeds improves certain application’s performance, including data back-ups, which is a growing value add service. Large file transfers, much of which are video files, are also becoming commonplace among consumers. By offering these increased symmetrical speeds, Verizon is leveraging its FTTH architecture to attack one of cable’s most recognized broadband “achilles heel,” slow upstream bandwidth. The higher upstream bandwidth may be the “icing on the cake” that many existing cable modem subscribers need to make the move to FiOS.
