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Verizon Launches 150 Mbps FiOS
Boosts 50 Mbps tier to 65 Mbps

Last year around this time, Verizon proclaimed that offering anything faster than 50 Mbps was little more than marketing tactics. The company responded to the cable industry's efforts to push the high-end speed bar to 100 Mbps by proclaiming that "slavishly satisfying (power users) skews the service and the market unrealistically." They even called Cablevision's 101 Mbps service "a parlor trick."

That was then, and this is now. The company this morning announced that they'll now be offering a new, 150 Mbps downstream and 35 Mbps upstream FiOS tier. The new tier pricing:

No contract, without voice service: $215 a month, $50 activation fee, $80 intallation fee

No contract, bundled with voice service: $210 a month, $50 activation fee, $80 installation

1 year contract, without voice service: $200 a month, $50 activation fee, no installation fee

1 year contract, bundled with voice service: $195 a month, no activation fee, no installation fee

"Our 35 mbps upload speed is more than 130 percent faster than Cablevision and Comcast's and more than 600 percent faster than Time Warner," crows Verizon. "Since we began selling FiOS Internet in the summer of 2004, we've learned that as the number of wired and Wi-Fi connectible Internet protocol devices, appliances and home control/security systems grow in popularity, the need for dependable, reliable, ultra-broadband increases proportionally," says the company.

"This advanced speed throughput is what we've often described as 'future proofing,'" Verizon's Bill Kula tells Broadband Reports. "By supporting the immediate and future speed needs of bandwidth-hungry customers, we believe our newest speed tier sets a new benchmark for high-speed Internet in America," he says, adding that the "new 150/35 Mbps offer will pave a path for a blizzard of bandwidth-intensive applications to reach mainstream status.

Unfortunately, most users won't be able to afford this new blisteringly-fast service. On that front, some pricing information we've obtained from Verizon indicates they're making a few other changes to their other tiers, including bumping their 50 Mbps down 20 Mbps up tier ($140-$165) to 60 Mbps down 35 Mbps up with no change in price. Verizon tells us they're considering updating the 50 Mbps tier to 60/35 Mbps, but that they haven't yet made the official move.