BERKELEY – Representatives from Verizon told members of the coalition of senior communities today that fiber optic lines, and the Fios product that comes with it, will be available to them soon.
An informal question and answer period was presented during the Holiday City Silver Ridge Park Coalition of Berkeley Township and Silver Ridge Park East meeting at the Silver Ridge Park North clubhouse. Several Verizon representatives were in attendance.
Bryan DePaul, area engineering manager, said that the project is slated to start this spring, and should take two years to complete. The area east of Mule Road will be the starting point, but he was unsure what streets were specifically going to have access to Fios first. Eventually, it will be the entire senior community and the Manitou Park section of Berkeley.
Residents will be notified in advance of any work being done in their area, he said. Once the system is online, they will start to see advertising to sign up. Each section takes about 90 days to complete, so certain neighborhoods will have access to Fios before others.
DePaul said that the company will be drilling holes for the lines in the ground over existing cables, and mostly through right-of-ways.
“There won’t be backhoes tearing up front yards,” he said.
Fios will be a competitor for Comcast, which is in the area now. It would be an option for residents. None of the representatives present were from the financial or sales portion of the company, so they were unable to talk about prices.
