December 23, 2007

Still No FIOS in North Lakewood CA

Well LAAG is still waiting for FIOS. Long Beach has it. Norwalk, Cerritos and many other cites close to Lakewood have it. Seal Beach's city council squabbled with Verizon FIOS installation before the statewide franchise in March 2007, but within the last 3 months Seal Beach invited Verizon back into the city with open arms. Long Beach also courted Verizon in 2006 and 2007. From what we can see the city of Lakewood and Bellflower (where the central office in for North Lakewood)have done nothing to get their residents FIOS and wired for the 21st century. Does the city favor Time Warner cable? Or does the city just not care that consumers have a choice for pay TV and internet access? Without action by the city in early 2008 we doubt that Lakewood will get FIOS at all in 2008. The story below is an example of what happens when the city council takes an assertive role in assuring its residents get first shot at new technology.

Fort Wayne Thanks Mayor for FiOS
A politician who understands technology
03:06PM Sunday Dec 23 2007 by KathrynV
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Fort-Wayne-Thanks-Mayor-for-FiOS-90460

Residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana finally got FiOS in May and the area’s Journal Gazette says that they should be thanking the local mayor. Mayor Graham Richard, whose term expires on January 1st, apparently played a very active role in working with Verizon to bring FiOS to the area. Based on the belief that innovation and competition both drive the economy, he held several meetings with Verizon executives to make the case that Fort Wayne was a good market for developing FiOS in the Midwest. Verizon noted that it’s rare for politicians to really understand the technology and to have the same vision as the company for developing it; this ultimately aided in their decision to move into Fort Wayne.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
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