Verizon explains their "passing" logic in NYC FiOS deployment

There was a very interesting audit released recently by NYC, where Verizon is being blasted for failing to deliver FiOS in the entire city. Criticism was of course expected, but the most interesting part of the audit is the response letter by Verizon, where they actually explain the logic of their deployment and how they understand "passing": http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/downloads/pdf/verizon-audit.pdf Here is the relevant part (page 43 in the PDF): quote:Verizon’s commitment under the Agreement was a unique one. It had not agreed to build a conventional (i.e., hybrid fiber/coax) cable network. Nor was it undertaking a “greenfield” deployment in an area that the company had not previously served. Rather — as was made clear in the discussions leading up to the Agreement, and as was memorialized in the Agreement itself — Verizon intended to deploy an all-fiber network as an upgrade to its existing copper outside plant, and therefore to deploy fiber along the same routes as it had used historically to serve the buildings in the City, and to obtain access to individual buildings using strategies similar to those it had used in the past. Those strategies included not only the use of public rights-of-way, but also, in many cases, the use of building-to-building connections. The word “pass” was understood and used by the parties in that context. [...] In short, in some cases, Verizon has met its passage obligation by running its facilities along the entire length of the block on which a building is located. In other cases — and with equal validity under the Agreement — Verizon has met the obligation by having facilities at the ends of the block, but not along its length, with a view towards accessing individual buildings through building-to-building connections, which in most instances require building approval. Through either of these authorized means, Verizon had passed every household in the City by November, 2014, and thus now complies with its passage obligation under the Agreement. The Report’s recommendation that Verizon be required to “build facilities on every residential block in the City” in order to comply with that obligation is inconsistent with the Agreement and, if adopted, would rob Verizon of the flexibility for which Verizon bargained, and to which the parties agreed. At last you get a clear explanation what Verizon actually had in mind. So realize that they are done with FiOS expansion, and if you want to see it where it's still lacking you have to explicitly request it. Otherwise nothing will happen, because Verizon already think they "passed" the whole city. Too add to that - Verizon actually failed to even build the network at the ends of the block in many cases, even though they claim so. A lot of factual evidence shows otherwise.