The last few weeks we've explored how with the exception of several major cities like New York and Philly, Verizon's FiOS expansion is essentially over. That leaves a significant number of markets suddenly wondering what the hell happened, including Boston, Alexandria, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. A lot has been made (and in some cases made up) about how some municipalities make unreasonable demands on Verizon, and therefore didn't get franchise agreements or FiOS. Sometimes towns and cities are unreasonable, but Verizon doesn't exactly tolerate towns or cities asking for much of anything in negotiations.

Verizon's shunning of Boston was driven by the fact Massachusetts actually wanted Verizon to pay property taxes like everybody else. Wilmington, Delaware just apparently realized they won't be getting FiOS. According to the Delaware News Journal, Wilmington was rejected because they wanted things like even deployment coverage, and improved customer service standards:Verizon's lobbyists and PR reps have done a bang up job convincing people that if your city or town didn't get a deal done with Verizon, city or town officials were just being completely unreasonable. But a lot of the demands Verizon finds "unreasonable" include very simple, long-standing consumer protections. And while Verizon and AT&T have been busily demonizing the local franchise system to expedite their entry into the TV business (their obvious play as investor-driven companies), many people wouldn't have cable TV or broadband if U.S. cities hadn't been "unreasonable" now and again while negotiating franchises.