Verizon to use Dorchester as a test site for bringing high-speed Net into cities
By Keith Reed, Globe Staff | November 2, 2006
Verizon Communications Inc. is installing fiber-optic Internet service in Dorchester, using Boston's biggest, and one of its most diverse neighborhoods, as a test site for the challenges the company will face in bringing "FiOS" to urban areas nationwide.
But relatively few Dorchester residents will be able to get the high-speed service, which promises download speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon's popular digital subscriber line service, any time soon. Verizon says installation is moving at a snail's pace because it's harder to run lines in an urban setting than in the neat, suburban grids where most of the more than 100,000 Massachusetts residents live who already subscribe to FiOS.