Comcast Considering 250GB Cap, Overage Fees → Re: Fios ?

Verizon has free bandwidth for FIOS. They do own the first Internet backbone provider (UUNet) and every other Tier 2 and Tier 3 backbone provider PAYS Verizon for access onto Verizon's backbone, and Verizon has free peering with all other Tier 1s. So FIOS is just a way to increase the value of Verizon's Tier 1 backbone by adding tons of high speed content sinks (residential customers). The faster that FIOS customers can suck bandwidth, the more expensive other Tier 2s and Tier 3s peering bandwidth costs get with Verizon which means more profit for Verizon.

UUNet was the first commercial backbone provider. BBN was the first provider, in the sense of ARPA-IP entity. Both started by using telco lines. I believe Verizon bought BBN, too, though, so your statement is roughly right enough.