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Last updated: January 22, 2008 2:52 p.m.

Verizon to raise FiOS TV rates

Nearly 12% hike to fall first on new subscribers

By Jenni Glenn
The Journal Gazette
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The Journal Gazette

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Starting next month, new subscribers will pay more for Verizon Communication Inc.’s fiber-optic television service.

FiOS TV Premier rates will increase almost 12 percent beginning Feb. 17, company spokesman Bill Kula said. The package will cost $47.99 a month, but current customers will continue to pay $42.99 a month until their one- or two-year contracts expire. Customers who sign up by Feb. 16 can lock in the current rate, he said.

“This is not a cable TV-like annual rate hike,” Kula said. “It essentially applies to new customers.”

The price increase is scheduled to start about seven months after Verizon launched fiber-optic TV in Fort Wayne, New Haven and Huntertown.

FiOS TV customers must pay a monthly charge for a set-top box in addition to the service package. The standard set-top box rate will increase from $4.99 to $5.99 next month, Kula said. Other set-top boxes, including a multi-room high-definition digital video recorder that costs $19.99 a month, will remain at their current prices.

Kula said Verizon absorbs as many price increases as possible. But, he said, the company sometimes must raise rates to pay for improving service and customer support.

The company’s fiber-optic Internet and telephone rates will not change next month, Kula said. But those customers who subscribe to a bundle containing TV, Internet and phone service will pay $109.99 a month under the new rates. That is rising from $104.99 a month. Those prices do not include the set-top box fee.

Cable company Comcast Corp., Verizon’s primary local competitor, also is increasing its rates, spokesman Mark Apple said. The new rates were not available Monday because the company was closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Consumers signing up for Comcast’s TV, Internet and phone service bundle currently pay a promotional rate of $99 a month for the first year.

Verizon is offering gifts – including a 19-inch LCD televison and a digital camcorder – to customers ordering specific service bundles, Kula said.

jglenn@jg.net