Carlyle Community

I have received numerous requests for an update on Verizon FIOS availability in both our Carlyle neighborhood as well as the City of Alexandria in general.

I have been trying to reach the folks at Verizon for some time now but as of now, I have gotten no response from them. So, I sent an e-mail into the City asking for some information on this issue from the City’s view.

Here is what Rose Boyd, Director of Citizen’s Assistance, responded with:

The City and Verizon reached an agreeement on all issues related to overhead and underground cabling in historic areas and throughout the City last spring.

The City Council approved language based upon staff negotiations with Verizon for the telecommunications franchise in June 2009 (this excludes the cable side). Cable television franchise negotiations (a cable franchise is required by state and federal law before Verizon can offer cable TV service) began last summer following Council’s June action.

These negotiations were suspended at Verizon’s request shortly thereafter (in August). At that time, staff was told that the company had placed all negotiations on hold as Verizon re-groups and re-assesses their efforts. Verizon staff initially indicated that they hoped a decision would be made in the fall and that network construction would begin shortly thereafter.

We have not had any update from Verizon since September 2009 (staff has called several times for status reports but has not received a response). The City of Alexandria is not holding up construction of the FIOS network and City Council has consistently encouraged competition in the television/telecommunications area.

With as many folks that have e-mailed in and for those folks I know of that are having issues with their Comcast service in Carlyle, we’ll continue to call on Verizon to see if we can get some sort of response from them ourselves and will let you know as soon as they respond.