Towson Leaders Urge Faster Verizon FIOS Implementation

Two Towson leaders are urging Verizon to speed up implemetation of FIOS service throughout the community. 

Although some Towson neighborhoods already have the service, which provides telephone, internet and television access over a fiber-optic communications network, Verizon does not have to provide FIOS for the whole town until March 2016, according to a franchise agreement.

Paul Hartman, who represents Towson on the Baltimore County Telecommunications Advisory Council, asked a Verizon official last week to consider hastening the process, according to an email from Councilman David Marks.

Hartman, who is also the incoming Greater Towson Council of Community Associations president, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Marks sent a letter to a Verizon official also encouraging faster implementation.

"Towson is Baltimore County's seat of government," Marks wrote in the letter. "It is home to Towson University and Goucher College, and it is a center of law, medicine and other important activities. Towson is the most densely populated part of Baltimore County, and quite frankly, it seems baffling to many residents why it still is not completely served by Verizon FIOS."

Marks said the Baltimore County Council would have to approve a resolution to speed up the process.