Fios

The union representing Verizon Communications Inc. workers says a deal between Verizon Wireless and cable companies could cost about 14,300 jobs over five years in eight Northeastern states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Verizon did not address the jobs figure but said the deal would be "in the public interest. " The job estimate is based on an economist's study and assumes that Verizon Communications will halt the rollout of its superfast FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services in older cities and other areas.

Mayor Nutter is expected to announce today that Verizon Communications Inc. will relocate several hundred jobs into a former Bell Atlantic building in the 900 block of Race Street in Chinatown. A news conference is set for this morning at City Hall for the announcement. Verizon, which is based in New York, employs 2,000 in Philadelphia and, among other operations, has a video hub for its FiOS TV service on Oregon Avenue. The company does not have a license to offer FiOS TV in the city.

Verizon Communications Inc., which is rolling out FiOS TV and Internet services in Philadelphia, is poised to double its early-termination fee for new TV and Internet subscribers to $360, according to corporate documents. Verizon has seen Comcast Corp. and other cable companies stealing back FiOS TV and Internet customers with steep discounts and offers to rebate the termination fee. Customers who cancel TV or Internet service in mid-contract pay the fee. The sharply higher fee - the current one is $179 for a two-year contract - would make the rebate payments more painful for competing cable companies.

Raising the stakes in streamed entertainment, phone giant Verizon Communications Inc. will launch a new national streaming service in a joint venture with DVD-rental firm Redbox later this year. The venture will be a direct competitor to Netflix, which now has more than 20 million subscribers, by offering DVD rentals through 35,000 Redbox kiosks and Internet-streamed entertainment by Verizon. Verizon will own 65 percent of the venture, and Coinstar Inc., which owns Redbox, will own 35 percent.

Almost two years after Comcast Corp. launched Xfinity to shed its image as a stodgy cable company, the brand will get a big boost in the Philadelphia area. The entertainment/sports complex rising on the former site of the Spectrum in South Philadelphia will be named Xfinity Live! - intended to reinforce the image of Xfinity TV and Xfinity Internet as thrilling and exciting products. Comcast says that the Xfinity campaign has been a success and that 47 percent more customers seem willing to consider purchasing Comcast products now that they are branded Xfinity.

WASHINGTON - A $3.6 billion deal to sell wireless spectrum and related joint-marketing agreements between cable companies, including Comcast Corp. and Verizon Wireless, faced criticism in a Senate Judiciary antitrust hearing Wednesday that they would hurt consumers and amounted to a truce between the telecom giants. "It's like you agreed to throw in the towel and stop competing with each other," Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.), a frequent Comcast critic, said in the hearing. Steven K. Berry, president and chief executive of the Rural Cellular Association, whose members include Sprint, T-Mobile, and Cricket, said: "This is effectively a non-compete agreement.

Comcast said yesterday that it would double broadband speeds for its customers in the Philadelphia and Boston areas as it competes with Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS service and seeks to make its broadband Internet service more attractive to DSL customers. Many customers in Philadelphia's suburbs, including South Jersey, will get speed upgrade by mid-December. Philadelphia customers should have the faster speeds in the first half of 2009. Faster speeds will proliferate across Comcast Corp.

With Verizon rolling out FiOS TV in Philadelphia, Comcast Corp. says it has completed modernizing its cable system with digital technology in the city and expanded ethnic-themed and high-definition channels. Philadelphia is the first Comcast market in the nation with 150 HD channels, the cable giant said Thursday. Before the upgrade, Comcast offered 100 HD channels. The new high-def content includes the Cooking Channel, Sprout, Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network, Sportsman Channel, and the Smithsonian.

MAYOR Nutter can forget about my family's vote if he's going to institute a fee for trash collection. Instead of charging people who actually pay their taxes, stop building beautiful Section 8 townhomes for lazy bums. Why should the city pay millions for homes that the residents will destroy in a matter of years? I live in the city because I have to. If I didn't, I would be gone! My kids can't go to school in their own neighborhood because miscreants are bused in from 15 miles away.