We've been nudged by a reliable source with supporting evidence who tells us Verizon will be raising the speed of several of their FiOS broadband tiers very soon. According to the source, Verizon's symmetrical 25 Mbps tier will soon be changed to 50 Mbps downstream and 25 Mbps upstream. The company's current symmetrical 35 Mbps tier will soon see a dramatic bump to 75 Mbps downstream and 35 Mbps upstream. "As far as I know, it will be like old upgrades where everyone will remain on the same plan and I'm assuming pay more for the increase," says the source. These changes should be arriving somewhere around June 18.

Verizon's pricing for these options vary slightly by market and bundle, and can be found at the Verizon website once you've plugged in your address details.

Despite market differences, the source notes that these new 50/25 and 75/35 tiers should be available in all markets, regardless of whether or not the market is on GPON or BPON. One interesting extra the source noted is that there has been talk of a 300 Mbps tier for GPON markets -- but it's not yet clear if that speed is going to be directed at residential accounts or enterprise users, and our source wasn't sure what the upload would be.

Needless to say, 300 Mbps would be a new high watermark for residential service and quite a marketing boon for a company that once called 100 Mbps service marketing gimmick. Verizon's fastest current offering is their 150/35 Mbps Ultimate tier. One of our more speed-hungry users recently bonded two Ultimate lines together in order to attain 300 Mbps connectivity. Again though, 75/35 will be the new highest tier for users still in BPON markets.