RICHMOND, Va., April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Virginia's
consumers, businesses and government agencies continued to benefit
from Verizon's 2014 investment of $659
million in its industry-leading fiber-optic and wireline
networks.
In addition, Verizon Wireless invested $537 million in 2014 on network upgrades and
expansions in the Virginia/Maryland/Washington,
D.C., region.
"Virginia's residents and
businesses enjoy some of the fastest Internet speeds in the
country," said Christopher Childs,
president of wireline network operations for Verizon's Mid-Atlantic
South region. "Verizon's advanced networks, products and services
are well positioned to meet Virginians' increasingly sophisticated
broadband, communications and entertainment needs today and into
the future. Our network technology fuels economic growth in
Virginia and empowers people and
businesses to connect however, whenever and wherever they
want."
Increasing the Fiber in Virginia's Diet
Fiber-optic networks strengthen communities, and last year
Verizon continued to deploy its 100 percent fiber-optic network,
with its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services, in Virginia. At year's end, FiOS services were
available to more than 1.35 million households and businesses in
Northern Virginia, Richmond and surrounding areas, and the
Hampton Roads region. Verizon has
placed more than 20,670 miles of fiber optics directly to homes and
businesses in the state – equivalent to a round trip between
Richmond, Virginia, and the
Richmond suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Fiber is more reliable than copper. Verizon has improved phone
service reliability for more than 800,000 customers nationally 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.
In 2014, Verizon filled the Hampton
Roads community of Ocean
View with fiber, replacing all the company's copper
facilities in the area served by its local switching office with
fiber optics.
Other 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.
Investing in Superior Customer Experiences
- 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 and 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.
Being a Responsible Environmental Steward
In addition to its network investment, Verizon is committed to
improving the quality of life in the communities it serves. As part
of that commitment, the company is focused on reducing its carbon
footprint by adopting sustainable business practices. For example,
the company's fifth annual recycling rally at its Ashburn campus collected 68,343 pounds – or 34
tons – of electronic waste from employees and the public, including
TVs, printers, desktop PCs, VCRs, DVDs and computer monitors – all
of which will be kept out of landfills.
Providing End-to-End Solutions for Video Customers
Verizon has combined powerful assets to further the company's
delivery of media and entertainment services through its Verizon
Digital Media Services business unit.
With its next-generation platform and global content delivery
network, Verizon Digital Media Services delivers end-to-end video
solutions for best-in-class TV Everywhere and superior experiences
to any device, anywhere, at any time. The interplay of assets
seamlessly orchestrated among a secure media cloud, an agile video
backbone and responsive intelligent edges delivers flexible and
robust video solutions.
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
Virginia 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/.
VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive
speeches and biographies, media contacts and other information are
available at Verizon's online News Center at
www.verizon.com/news/. The news releases are
available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit
www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/.
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SOURCE Verizon