Posted: Feb 13 2016 at 12:30pm | Views: 88757
Verizon Is Not Answering Co-op City's Calls For FiOS
A recently published report alleged that the Riverbay Board was impeding Verizon from installing their
FiOS service in Co op City; but factual evidence shows that Verizon has avoided bringing their FiOS service to Coop City and to lots of other places.
Extra Reading:
View discussion regarding Verizon FiOS in Coop City
A supposed spokesperson for Verizon allegedly made the following comment; "Co-op City has an exclusive marketing agreement with
Cablevision, the incumbent cable provider in the Bronx. Despite our attempts to work with the Co-op City board to install FiOS there, they recently granted the incumbent provider a ten year extension of that exclusive marketing agreement. We remain open to talking with them in the future to work something out."
Yes, it's true that Riverbay has an exclusive marketing agreement with Cablevision. This confidential agreement was started on December 14, 2007 and it will end on January 22, 2024. However this agreement does not prohibit Verizon from installing and providing their services to the Co-op City community.
Now, was this agreement extended for ten years? No! Has Verizon recently tried to "work something out" with this community? No!
The last time that Verizon met with the Riverbay board was on July 16, 2014. Thereafter, my articles clearly stated that they "want the majority of this community to sign up for their internet service and then they can bring their FiOS service to us." So, based on this approach, Verion can save money on wiring up our buildings. Now, is that working something out for us? Not really, especially when we have a lot of residents that do not have computers and access to the internet. Irrespective of an exclusive marketing agreement, Verizon has a franchise agreement with New York City to bring their FiOS service to every home in this city; so they don't need Riverbay's permission to bring
Verizon FiOS services to us. In fact, this franchise agreement gave Verizon the legal right to enter every Co-op City building and install their equipment. Therefore, our agreement with Cablevision does not prevent Verizon from bringing their FiOS services to us. The Verizon representative inadvertently admitted this point when he stated that they want this community to sign up for their internet service to get FiOS.
Additionally, the agreement with Cablevision is not stopping anyone, in Co op City, from legally getting Verizon's regular internet and phone service right now. Therefore, with these established points, can a truthful statement be made that Riverbay is stopping anyone from getting FiOS if Verizon truly wanted to wire up our buildings? The answer has to be no. So this point clearly proves that Verizon is refusing to wire up our buildings for their FiOS service. Additionally, according to an audit report conducted by the city, Verizon has also refused to bring their FiOS service to lots of other communities. This report can be easily found by researching these words: "NYC's audit report on Verion".
Finally, I hope that everyone here can clearly see what's going on with Riverbay, Cablevision, this exclusive marketing agreement and Verizon.
Written By:
Daryl Johnson
Riverbay Board Director
[email protected]
718-671-4544
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