Verizon Settles Suit With NYC, Bringing Broadband to 500,000 Households

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Not all people with inadequate internet connections reside deep in remote areas, some are in population dense, but broadband scarce, areas of New York City. As Bloomberg.com reports, Verizon Communications, Inc. and New York City have finally settled a years-long dispute that will bring connectivity to 500,000 underserved households.

Rich Young, a spokesman for Verizon, spoke positively of the outcome, noting, “This brings a finality to this long standing litigation.” He added that “Work on this agreement has already gotten underway,” with Verizon’s aim being to bring connections to eleven public housing complexes.

Mayor Bill De Blasio was also pleased that the matter had been settled saying, “The pandemic has only underscored how critical this need is.”

The agreement between the two parties put an end to a dispute that began in 2014. At that time, Mayor De Blasio asserted that Verizon had failed to deliver its Fios fiber-optic service across the entire city as it had promised. A lawsuit was launched in 2017 accusing Verizon of failing to live up to its installation agreement. Pointing to the high cost of building a fiber-optic network and connecting multiple households, Verizon had suspended Fios expansion in 2010.

Both the city and Verizon have noted that they are ready to put the disagreement behind them and focus on a population in need of high speed broadband connections.  

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