PHILADELPHIA – The City’s Office of Innovation and Technology is asking for the public’s help in its effort to verify certain portions of the franchise agreement between the City and Verizon for the buildout of Verizon’s FIOS network.

In accordance with the provisions of the agreement, Verizon is obligated to make cable service available throughout the entire city within seven years of the effective date of the agreement. That date was February 26, 2009, and therefore the seven-year deadline passed on February 26, 2016. On or before this date, Verizon was to have made its cable service available throughout the entire city, subject to certain exceptions set forth in the franchise agreement.

In order to better determine whether that obligation has been met, OIT has created a web-based form through which residents can send information about their experience with Verizon.

“We take the conditions of this franchise agreement very seriously,” said Chief Innovation Officer Charles Brennan.  “So we are asking for residents to step forward and tell us if they tried to get FIOS but were unable to.”

Specifically, the form asks whether residents have tried to order Verizon service but have been told by the company that service is not yet available in their neighborhood.  The form can be found at phila.gov/cablefranchises.

The City conducted similar web-based outreach  in 2013 when  it was verifying Comcast’s obligations as part of the franchise agreement renewal process.  The City renewed Comcast’s franchise agreement last year.