City accuses Verizon of breaking FiOS rollout pact in suit
​Mayor de Blasio wants his FiOS.
The city sued Verizon today for “breaking the trust” of millions of New Yorkers by failing to bring its FiOS ​cable and internet ​service into every household in the city, the mayor said Monday.
The lawsuit, filed by the ​administration in Manhattan Supreme Court, claims the TV, phone and internet giant reneged on a 12-year agreement signed in 2008 to make its fiber-optic cable network available to everyone by 2014.
“Verizon must face the consequences fo​​r breaking the trust of 8.5 million New Yorkers,” said de Blasio in a statement.
“Verizon promised that every household in the city would have access to its fiber-optic FiOS service by 2014. It’s 2017 and we’re done waiting. No corporation – no matter how large or powerful – can break a promise to New Yorkers and get away with it.”
Last year, a blistering audit by the city’s Department of Information Technology logged a series of complaints against Verizon, including that a quarter of the blocks in the city had no buildings that were properly wired for FiOS.
The report also said Verizon “does not communicate accurately and effectively with prospective customers.”
“Although Verizon claims it ‘passed’ all residential premises, Verizon still does not accept orders from all city residents,” the audit said. “In fact, it still informs residents that service is ‘unavailable’ at an address if their network has not been created on the block.”
Verizon originally promised to “pass” every residential building and “have fiber up and down each street and avenue in the entire city.”
Verizon spokesman Raymond McConville said the company ​h​as “lived up to our obligation 100 percent.”
“The de Blasio administration is disingenuously attempting to rewrite the terms of an agreement made with its predecessor and is acting in its own political self-interests that are completely at odds with what’s best for New Yorkers,” McConville said. “We plan to vigorously fight the city’s allegations.”