Verizon lost 96,000 DSL customers last quarter for a number of reasons, not least of which are the recession, housing bubble and tight household budgets. Not helping much was the fact that Verizon had been diverting a lot of DSL marketing and support resources for promoting FiOS. Also not helping is the fact that Verizon's fastest speed in many markets remains just 3Mbps, and customers in these areas have been defecting to cable. While Verizon's FiOS and wireless businesses are doing well, their DSL business has been hit hard.

To counter this, Verizon has started pushing DSL a little harder. In October, Verizon upgraded their entry-level DSL tier to 1 Mbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream -- up from 768 Kbps/128 Kbps. The telco also revamped their bundles slightly for the 1Mbps, 3Mbps and 7Mbps tiers, reducing double and triple play pricing anywhere from $5 to $30, depending on what services and speeds users chose.

Verizon contacted us today to inform us they're changing things slightly yet again. Spokesman Robert Elek tells me they're again offering DSL pricing for life -- a concept they offered for a while back in 2007. According Verizon, (see press release), new Verizon customers who sign a two year contract keep their pricing for as long as they keep the service. Obviously the usefulness of this promotion is limited if DSL prices drop, or if you're able to get better deal by renegotiating one year deals (which is often the case) or switching carriers.

Elek also notes that the company is again revamping their bundle discounts for DSL and DirecTV bundle customers. "The basics of the bundle have not changed, but through February 21, new VZ consumers can save anywhere from $60-$90 off of the annual cost of the "better" and "best" bundles, for both double and triple plays," says Elek. This deal requires a one-year commitment or 18-24 months with DirecTV in the bundle, says the company. Their press release says 3 Mbps or 7.1 Mbps customers can net $30 a month off for the first three months.

Verizon also tells us they've now also expanded the availability of their 7Mbps tier to 9 million households, up from the 400,000 homes reached when we were the first to report the tier back in early 2007. It should be interesting to see the impact these efforts have when Verizon announces their fourth quarter earnings on January 27. Verizon could have a rocky 2009 with DSL, but their $24 billion FTTH investment will still pay huge dividends long term.