* FiOS Digital Voice was specifically designed for Verizon's fiber-optic network and provides 21 enhanced calling features
Verizon has announced a VoIP-based service for its residential FiOS customers: FiOS Digital Voice has been launched in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Verizon discontinued its first generation VoIP service (VoiceWing) in March 2009, but has been testing a next-generation VoIP service since late 2008. While the new service is initially available to residential customers, Verizon plans to extend the service to FiOS business customers later this year.
FiOS Digital Voice was specifically designed for Verizon’s fiber-optic network. It provides 21 enhanced calling features such as Caller ID Name and Number, Anonymous Call Rejection, Voice Mail, Incoming Call Block, Do Not Disturb and Locate Me — including some features that aren’t available today from Verizon’s Freedom voice portfolio or even from cable competitors’ VoIP-based platforms. For example, the new service provides Caller ID on the FiOS-connected TV screen and online account management — features that Verizon Freedom doesn’t offer but that some MSO voice services do provide. Other features such as “Live Voice Mail Screening” give users the option to hear incoming voice mail messages and then decide to take or not take the incoming call. Like traditional phone service, FiOS Digital Voice allows users to reach local emergency services by dialing 911.
Emphasizing how Verizon hopes to differentiate its new service from VoIP-based service cable operators have deployed, Eric J. Bruno, vice president for Verizon consumer product management and development, said in a statement, “FiOS Digital Voice . . . [provides] features that others only hope to offer. Subscribers get more free calling features than cable, delivered with the trusted reliability of our advanced all-fiber network, and they get it all from a company with long-standing expertise in delivering superior phone service.”
FiOS services now account for 41% of Verizon’s consumer revenues (as of Q1 2010 results). FiOS has reached 29% market penetration for Internet of homes served and 25% for FiOS TV subscribers. FiOS Digital Voice is now available where FiOS is offered in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania and California.
