Orange County Register

**UPDATED** Added some clarifications from Verizon. Also, earlier, added multi-family properties in Orange County and Southern California that offer FiOS TV. See below. 

Verizon has faced a ton of hurdles in the three years it’s been rolling out FiOS TV, an alternative-to-cable TV service. And one of the toughest areas to infiltrate has been apartments, condos, high-rises and other multi-family dwellings.

People living in multi-unit buildings can’t just order the service from Verizon even if they see fliers and billboards everywhere in their city. Verizon needs permission from the building’s owner or condo assocation to even offer it. 

But Eric Cevis, vice president of Verizon Enhanced Communities, said that his team is working hard to get that permission with incentives. It’s also getting easier to persuade owners to let Verizon in because consumers are more aware of FiOS’s TV service and high-speed Internet of up to 50 megabits per second. 

One reason is legal: The FCC banned apartment owners  (here’s the official FCC release) and condo associations from granting a single TV service exclusive rights to offer TV to residents. This was done to cut the cable TV companies’ lock on multi-family dwellings and allow alternatives like satellite TV and now, Internet-based TV such as Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s U-Verse.

But other reasons that his job is getting easier include increased awareness among the community plus stepped-up marketing efforts by Cevis’ team. FiOS even has a site dedicated to “enhanced communities” to show the value of adding FiOS by offering reports and videos to owners and developers. His team cold calls owners, hangs fliers on doors and has made FiOS an amenity alongside wireless Internet and hot tubs in those free apartment-shopper guides. 

“In 2005, that number (of owners that said no) was probably in the double digits percent, but I would say today, it’s around the high single digits,” Cevis said. “When they find out that we’re paying for the wired upgrade for free and willing to share the revenue model, they’re willing to talk.”

After getting permission, Verizon must physically dig up the ground to lay fiber-optic cables right to the building. And then, the company needs to sell the service to tenants. It’s figured out a sneaky way to get around the ‘exclusive’ ban. It offers to split revenue from sales with the building owner in exchange for an exclusive right to market its TV service to tenants, which isn’t the same as offering the service exclusively. Also, Verizon is offering incentives like flat-screen TVs to leasing agents who get new tenants to buy the service. 

Added, 10/17/08, a clarification by Verizon: The company wants me to point out that this ’sneaky way’ is an industry standard. Verizon isn’t being sneaky at all. All TV companies are trying to get exclusive marketing deals with buildings and even when they do, tenants still can choose to order whatever TV service they want.

After that, it takes up to 90 days for service to start.

Here in Orange County, the service hasn’t expanded much beyond the initial cities. Today, the service is available, more or less, in Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Lo Alamitos, Stanton, Westminster and some unincorporated areas of Orange County. 

** Update** I just got details on FiOS availability in O.C.: In Huntington Beach, four properties offer FiOS to tenants. There are more than 1,700 property owners and managers that offer FiOS to tenants in California, according to Verizon. But oddly, those building owners haven’t given Verizon permission to share their names. In HB, the sites that are marketing their FiOS amenity are:

• Bridges - 16851 Nichols Street in Huntington Beach, CA
• Hermosa Vista - 15363 Goldenwest Street in Huntington Beach, CA
• Huntington Point - 18992 Florida Street in Huntington Beach, CA
• Sher Lane - 16112 Sher Ln in Huntington Beach, CA

Verizon won’t say how many homes in O.C. can get FiOS. But in Southern California, it’ll be up to 1 million homes by the end of the year.  

For the rest of Southern California, the following properties also offer FiOS, according to Verizon:

• Amanda Park - 24425 Skyview Ridge in Murrieta, CA
• Lakeview - 107 S. Lewis St in Lake Elsinore, CA
• Palo Verde - 44-720 Palo Verde in Indio, CA
• Park Glen - 200 S. Glenn Drive in Camarillo, CA
• Park Glenn Seniors - 200 S. Glenn Drive in Camarillo, CA
• Emerald Place Apartments - 40300 Washington Street in Bermuda Dunes, CA.
• Sierra Vista Apartments - 10558 Mountain View Ave in Redlands, CA.

FiOS TV now offers 102 high-defintition channels for Southern California, excluding any on-demand HD channels. Basic service with 295 channels starts around $48/month.

If you are wondering when Verizon will come to you, call 800-483-4000 or check the FiOS TV site and plug in your home address or phone number. Unfortunately, this only tells you about your address. If you’re in a FiOS community but your building owner or condo association hasn’t added FiOS, this site won’t tell you whether the process has been started, rejected or should easily qualify if you just ask the owners. 

As for the rest of O.C.?  Verizon is going after customers already living in its territory. So, if your telephone service is from Verizon, your neighborhood is on the list. Verizon has only offered FiOS to one city outside of its territory and that was in  Houston Dallas, Tex. 

“Of course, once we monetize the investment, we’ll expand outside the territory,” Cevis said. “We have not decided what the next year’s (expansion) will look like. We’re building out 2009 (plans) right now. We’ll see what, if any expected growth we’ll have in O.C. proper.”

With all this extra effort, Cevis hopes to have more than 1 million multi-family units eligible for FiOS by the end of the year. That’s up from 33,000 in 2005. But it’s still a long way to go. In the U.S., there are 17.5 million apartment units, according to the National Multi Housing Council.

One more clarification by Verizon: The 17.5 million apartments aren’t all in Verizon territory. Verizon’s FiOS Internet service is available in parts of 16 states (and D.C.) and FiOS TV is available in parts of 14 states (a video franchise needs to be obtained before Verizon can begin to offer TV service – the company is working with various municipalities on an ongoing basis to obtain these licenses).

More on FiOS:

• Guide to paid-TV services in OC
• FiOS Internet service at a standstill in OC
• Speed up your Verizon FiOS Internet for free; just ask
• Where in the world is AT&T’s U-verse?
• Verizon FiOS update .. from a reader
• Behind the TV services
• AT&T launches TV in OC
• New TV tricks from your cable company
•  Verizon FiOS TV expands in O.C.

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