Verizon racked up another strong quarter according to the most recent earnings report. The telco has passed more than ten million homes with FiOS Internet service, and nearly that many with FiOS TV. Of those households with FiOS available, 26.8% subscribe to data services and 22.9% subscribe to video services. At the same time, Verizon is losing DSL customers, though not at a rate comparable to its broadband additions. The company lost 46,000 DSL subscribers in the last quarter, but gained a record 298,000 net new FiOS Internet customers.
I’ve tended to think of basic, low-speed broadband service as a gateway to to the Internet. It’s limited, but affordable, especially for households subscribing to Internet services for the first time. As even basic Internet activity becomes more bandwidth intensive, however, I wonder how well lower-speed broadband will serve most households. For example, any homes with kids likely need access to multimedia sites for school projects, and that’s assuming the kids aren’t already hanging out on Flash-heavy entertainment sites like Disney.com.
Separate from the DSL numbers, I’d be curious to see Verizon break out usage of some of its innovative television services. How many people use FiOS TV widgets, and how often? Is Home Media DVR (multi-room DVR) continuing to gain traction? How popular are games on the set-top? Of course it’s unlikely we’ll ever see that much detail, but as the numbers start to point strongly in Verizon’s favor, maybe we’ll get milestone updates on how different features are being used.
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