Verizon Telecom offers voice, data and video services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses, and wholesale customers in 25 states and Washington, D.C. Verizon Telecom’s goal is to be our customers’ first choice for communications and entertainment services. We’re deploying the nation’s most advanced fiber-optic network, offering Verizon FiOS Internet, TV and voice services over a single high-speed connection. With Verizon’s all-fiber network, our customers’ homes and offices are wired for the future. We’re the only major communications company that’s installing fiber directly to homes and businesses on a mass scale across the country. Our fiber-optic network offers nearly unlimited bandwidth for voice, Internet and high-definition TV services, and is designed to handle new applications as they’re developed.
Verizon Telecom plans to invest $18 billion in net capital through 2010 to pass 18 million homes and businesses with fiber. Our fiber deployment is reducing network operating costs, with expected savings of about $1 billion in annual operating expenses by 2010. That’s because our fiber-optic network provides more reliable service than copper – it’s less affected by bad weather and it’s easier to maintain. As a result of increasing FiOS revenues and declining costs, we expect that FiOS will generate positive operating income for the company beginning in 2009.