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Topic: UMB (EV-DO Rev. C)

January 11, 2007, 5:41 PM

Verizon logo

Scott Fulton, BetaNews: In a late development at CES, Verizon announced that it is commencing with plans to boost the speed of its all-fiberoptic FiOS Internet service in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream, bringing the total to five the number of states where 50 Mbps service is being offered. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are the other three, and the company has plans to upgrade the rest of its service to about 522,000 customers in an 16-state area later this year.

Verizon Wireless, meanwhile (which parent company Verizon jointly owns with Vodafone) could conceivably get in on the act soon, perhaps becoming part of a "quadruple-play" deal with Verizon. A mobile + stationary broadband service offering could become quite attractive, giving the telco a quality-of-service offering that upcoming device-oriented IPTV services from Microsoft, Apple, and others won't be able to match. Key to Verizon Wireless' success with this plan is its investment in the EV-DO evolutionary path, which is culminating this year in something called UMB.