By Adam Pincus
The company has begun work on Northern Boulevard, where crews are currently converting copper cables above and below ground to fiber optic cables. The next community to begin conversion will be Arverne by the Sea, a planned community in the Rockaways.Beginning in December, the Verizon hopes to offer the high-speed fiber optic service, dubbed FiOS, to customers in Bayside. Subscribers will have the copper telephone wires between their home and the telephone pole replaced by fiber optic lines, which can carry data 15 to 20 times faster than DSL or cable.Service to Arverne by the Sea will follow, but the company was not able to provide a specific timetable, said Verizon spokeswoman Lark-Marie Anton. Service in New York is currently available in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.Telecommunications activists are concerned that telecommunication companies are introducing their cutting-edge technologies in well-heeled neighborhoods that are easier to upgrade and may neglect underserved areas, thereby increasing the so-called digital divide.Thomas Lowenhaupt, chairman of the Technology Advisory Committee for Community Board 3 in Jackson Heights, said “it seems clear that what is appropriate for Bayside is appropriate for us. There shouldn't be any redlining.”Anton denied that the company was redlining. “That is not at all what we are doing,” she said, noting that Verizon was installing fiber optic in Arverne as well.She said the telecom giant chose Bayside for the city's first deployment through a mix of marketing and engineering considerations, explaining it was more difficult to rewire densely built-up areas.Verizon will initially offer only high-speed Internet connections, she said, but later will offer cable programming over the fiber optic lines in competition with traditional cable companies such as Time Warner Cable and Cablevision.District Manager Susan Seinfeld from Community Board 11, which represents Bayside, said representatives from Verizon came to her office in January and described the rollout plan, which she then presented to the board the following month.She said the board was satisfied by the company's assurance in January that only two or three boxes would be at street level in Bayside, the rest being suspended from telephone poles.She said the fiber optic service could be a benefit for Bayside residents in terms of convenience and quality if “after it is installed they have a competitive rate for the phone and Internet and cable.”Dana Spiegel, executive director of NYCwireless, a wireless advocacy group, called fiber optic technology a “double-edged sword.”He said the replacement of the copper wires to the homes by fiber optic would reduce competition, because of a Federal Communication Commission regulation that requires telecommunications companies to provide universal access for competitors on their copper, but not fiber optic, wires.”When you remove competition, prices go up,” he said. “There will be no competitive pressure.” Reach reporter Adam Pincus by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
