After coming off of their worst quarter for DSL losses ever, Verizon last week started offering a new bundle targeting users that are still on dial-up. This week the company announced a significantly more compelling shift for their DSL business: they're now offering users within range a new speed tier that clocks in between 10 and 15 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. Verizon tells Broadband Reports this is ADSL2+, and the service requires that users be at most 7,000 feet from the central office.

"The distance to get these speeds maxes out at about 7,000 feet," Verizon's Kevin Laverty tells us. According to Laverty, the new tier is available to about 4 million Verizon DSL subscribers. "We've invested tens of millions to upgrade central offices where ADSL 2 is currently available and expect to add more in the months ahead," he says. "Nationwide locations run the gamut from Barstow, CA in California's Mojave Desert to Lynchburg, VA."

Of course Verizon's "rewarding" those who bundle (or punishing those who don't, depending on your point of view), charging $50 a month for users that have Verizon phone service, or $60 for those without. The new tier isn't available yet on Verizon's website, but you'll notice that in response to recent FCC criticisms, Verizon has eliminated the "up to" marketing term, and instead is giving a general range of downstream speeds you can expect.

Verizon hopes that these faster speeds will keep customers in legacy DSL markets from defecting to faster cable speeds and VoIP triple play bundles. Of course this 10-15 Mbps upgrade comes too late for the millions of DSL customers in fourteen states that Verizon just offloaded to Frontier Communications.