Time Warner Cable and Verizon have already begun their next-generation broadband battle in New York City, where Time Warner Cable last month finally announced availability of faster 50 Mbps service (you can see new customer thoughts in our forums) for $99, albeit to a limited city footprint. Verizon has promised New York City they'll have the entire city wired by 2014, so Time Warner Cable had a little time to kill -- as Verizon techs cover the city with smaller ONTs and bendable fiber in hand.

In upstate New York, many markets are considerably more rural, less affluent and therefore see less competition. Cities like Binghamton, Utica and Watertown likely aren't on anybody's next-gen upgrade radar. Bigger cities like Syracuse this week are only this week starting to see FiOS TV, Verizon announcing the availability of FiOS TV to 50,000 homes in various Syracuse neighborhoods (those interested can check out the press release or watch Verizon play reporter, interviewing themselves on how awesome they are).

You can expect the battle to heat up further between Time Warner Cable and Verizon over the next few months. Time Warner Cable insiders tell Broadband Reports the cable company plans to launch faster DOCSIS 3.0 service in Buffalo in mid-November, Syracuse in December, and Albany in January. Interestingly omitted (at least from these earlier launch markets) is Rochester, New York -- where the local incumbent phone operator is Frontier, and there's no Verizon FiOS.