PHILADELPHIA, April 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers,
businesses and government agencies from one end of the Keystone
State to the other continued to reap the benefits of Verizon's
investment of more than $1 billion
million during 2014 in its industry-leading fiber-optic, wireline
and wireless networks.
These investments have given more Verizon customers in
Pennsylvania access to fiber
optic-based FiOS Internet and TV services, innovative enterprise
business solutions and network upgrades to enhance the customer
service experience.
Verizon Wireless customers have seen improved data speeds and
enhanced network capacity across Pennsylvania, and the company also continued
to expand its industry-leading 4G LTE and XLTE networks across the
state, to deploy small cells and distributed antenna systems in
high-traffic areas, and to begin rolling out Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
technology.
"In today's digitally connected world, technology has become a
greater part of everyone's life, and Verizon's network investments
are delivering the communications, broadband and video services
customers want," said Carl Erhart,
Verizon area vice president of state government affairs. "They are
driving the next generation of technological innovations that give
customers the ability to connect however, whenever and wherever
they want."
"No other company invests in Pennsylvania like Verizon, which not only
benefits consumers and business, but contributes to the economic
vitality and competitiveness of the state," Erhart said. "Advanced
communications services are critical for education, healthcare,
public safety, business competitiveness and community development,
and Verizon is fully committed to serving customers with the best
customer experience and network technologies to meet their
needs."
Fiber-optic networks strengthen communities, and last year
Verizon continued deployment of its 100 percent fiber-optic
network, with its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services. At year's
end, FiOS services were available to more than 2 million homes and
businesses across Pennsylvania.
Verizon has placed more than 25,000 miles of fiber optics in
Pennsylvania – enough to stretch
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and back more than 40 times.
Verizon's Major 2014 Wireline Infrastructure
Programs
- Completion of a major network upgrade in Hummelstown in which all residents and
businesses in the community now receive Verizon services over a 100
percent fiber-optic network, making it the company's first
all-fiber-optic town.
- Expansion of the fiber network to more than 160,000 new
households in the Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh areas.
- Placement of 200 miles of fiber-optic cable to nearly 60 new
cell towers to deliver 4G LTE wireless service to tens of thousands
of households in rural parts of the state.
- Completion of major network enhancement projects in
West Newton, Lancaster and Lewiston.
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)
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.
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
Pennsylvania 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
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SOURCE Verizon