Verizon fuels another round of residential fiber optimism with announcements they've selected additional vendors for deployments. They're the only bell with significant deployment plans for 2004. While this press release is optimistic, history dictates that users should believe such plans when they see them with their own eyes. According to this Telephony On-line article, Verizon CTO Mark Wegleitner says Verizon will be investing $600-800 million on fiber to the premises in 2004 - roughly 10% of its $6 billion wireline capital expenditures budget. However users simply aren't ready for that much bandwidth (unless it's for TV), the bells continue to be stuck in regulatory battle with the FCC, and DSL is making them plenty of money for the time being.

Verizon, SBC and BellSouth unveiled their request for proposal announcement (RFP) this summer, indicating they were taking fiber more seriously and were looking to standardize deployments. Verizon CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg insisted that the company was serious about investing $20 to $40 billion in Verizon's fiber deployment agenda, which was to have 60% of U.S. households ready for fiber within five years. The result was a boost in stock value for all those involved, followed by a series of comments from bell execs that seemed suddenly less optimistic.

So while there is money budgeted and vendors selected, whether actual deployments see the light of day is anyone's guess. As Dave Burstein discusses in the latest issue of DSL Prime, the time is quickly coming for the bells to either put up, or shut up - lest this chicken and the egg regulatory argument bore us all to tears.