NEWARK, N.J., April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- New Jersey's consumers, businesses and government agencies continued to benefit from Verizon's 2014 investment of more than $547 million in its industry-leading fiber-optic and wireline networks. 

In addition, Verizon Wireless invested more than $640 million in its New York metro region, which includes northern New Jersey, and more than $270 million in its Philadelphia Tri-State region, which includes southern New Jersey. The investments have given Verizon's customers improved data speeds and enhanced network capacity within the regions. Verizon Wireless also continued to expand its industry-leading 4G LTE and XLTE networks across the regions, to deploy small cells and distributed antenna systems in high-traffic areas, and to begin rolling out Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology.

"Verizon is committed to driving economic growth in New Jersey through the ongoing, significant network investments we are making," said Paul Sullivan, president of Verizon's Mid-Atlantic North region. "The economic health of New Jersey is increasingly tied to robust and modern communications networks, and Verizon is strengthening communities by helping to move the state into an era of advanced technologies and communications services.

"As one of the largest private capital investors in the state, Verizon continues to upgrade and strengthen our networks to enhance the customer experience and to keep a step ahead of the trends that are driving growth in our industry. This creates opportunities to drive innovation and use the power of our network assets to create unique communications solutions for our customers across the Garden State," said Sullivan.

Fiber-optic networks strengthen communities, and last year Verizon continued deployment of its 100 percent fiber-optic network, with its FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services. At year's end, FiOS services were available to more than 2.1 million homes and businesses across New Jersey. Verizon has placed more than 22,000 miles of fiber-optic cables in New Jersey – enough to connect Newark to Camden and back 125 times.

Verizon's Major 2014 Wireline Infrastructure Programs

• Completion of its all fiber-optic network to every neighborhood in the city of Newark.
  • Verizon's project transformed the Garden State's largest city into a 100 percent fiber-optic city, creating a technological foundation for economic growth and quality of life. Verizon placed more than 1.3 million feet of fiber and network infrastructure under and above the streets of Newark, making the company's FiOS services available to more than 135,000 addresses across the city's five wards.
• Expansion of the fiber network to 102,000 new households in New Jersey, with major expansions in Newark and Paterson.
• Placement of fiber-optic cable to 579 new cell towers to deliver 4G LTE wireless service across the state.

The Fastest, Most Reliable Internet Service Got Even Better in 2014

• Significantly raising the bandwidth bar with FiOS Quantum Internet.
  • SpeedMatch, offering upload speeds that match download speeds at no additional cost, was one way Verizon said thank you to many of its FiOS customers. FiOS Quantum Internet upload speeds rival or exceed most download speeds offered by competitors. The ultrafast speed delivers technology that gives people the best way to upload photos and videos, send or back up files, conduct video chats and use multiple Internet devices simultaneously, among other bandwidth-intensive applications.
  • FiOS Quantum Gateway Router, which provides small businesses and consumers the fastest Wi-Fi available from any provider, with guest Wi-Fi and enhanced parental controls.

No More DVR Battles, and TV Went Everywhere

• FiOS Quantum TV gives customers more choices and control than ever before, including the ability to record up to 12 shows at once; pause and rewind live TV on any TV in the home; and store up to 200 hours of HD programs.
• The FiOS Mobile App offers 168 in-home channels, 88 out-of-home channels and 70,000 on-demand content features over select broadband-connected tablets or smartphones.
• FiOS TV Everywhere offers 89 channels over a broadband-connected PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
• FiOS TV's advanced, interactive search and navigation was upgraded to make it even easier for customers to find and enjoy what they want to watch.
• FiOS TV features the most video on demand, with 100,000-plus FiOS On Demand video titles to rent or own, plus premium on-demand content packages with sports, movie and international programming.

Investing in Superior Customer Experiences

• The company has launched a number of customer-experience management tools to provide an even better experience for its residential and small-business customers, ranging from a tech notification tool, which keeps customers updated on when a Verizon installation technician will arrive prior to their appointment; to mobile coach, which enables supervisors to work with reps in real time to better serve customers. These tools were developed with direct input from employees who use them daily.
• Customers can take advantage of Verizon's In-Home Agent application for automated self-service.

Thank You for Making Us No. 1 (Again)

Customers ranked Verizon Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Very Small Business Wireline Service in the J.D. Power "J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Business Wireline Satisfaction Study." And for the second straight year, FiOS Internet was rated No. 1 in the 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index. In addition, customers made Verizon FiOS Internet the recipient of PC Magazine's Readers' Choice Award for the ninth consecutive year.

Providing End-to-End Solutions for Video Customers

Verizon has combined powerful assets to further the company's delivery of media and entertainment services through its Verizon Digital Media Services business unit.

With its next-generation platform and global content delivery network, Verizon Digital Media Services delivers end-to-end video solutions for best-in-class TV Everywhere and superior experiences to any device, anywhere, at any time. The interplay of assets seamlessly orchestrated among a secure media cloud, an agile video backbone and responsive intelligent edges delivers flexible and robust video solutions.

Enterprise Business Solutions Tailored to Meet Client Needs

Verizon Enterprise Solutions oversees all of Verizon's solutions for large-business, wholesale and government customers in New Jersey and globally, including a portfolio of cloud and IT, enterprise mobility, security and advanced communications offerings. Its key client segments include healthcare, manufacturing and automotive, financial services and large government agencies. In 2014, Verizon:

• Unveiled the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center, which offers global client organizations advanced detection and response capabilities to better manage and mitigate cyberthreats.
• Expanded its Verizon Financial Network to more than 50 new markets, services and data centers in Europe and North America to give trading firms and other financial institutions secure and on-demand access to markets and applications, in addition to increased flexibility and scalability.
• Converted five Verizon data centers that provide enterprise-class colocation services to carrier-neutral facilities, including locations in Boston; Denver; Elmsford, New York; Manassas, Virginia; and Seattle.
• Invested heavily in its cloud and networking services:
  • Released a new service model and a set of features and functionality for the company's cloud infrastructure and storage platform. Verizon Cloud now includes a variety of services tiers, onboarding and workload migration services, and several deployment options ranging from public cloud to private, on-premises cloud. Additionally, Verizon Cloud opened a Marketplace where enterprises can buy software-based IT services to run on top of Verizon's cloud infrastructure.
• Launched Secure Cloud Interconnect service so that enterprises can use multiple clouds at once via Verizon's Private IP networking, including the Verizon Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, HP Helion Managed Cloud Service,  the Salesforce Customer Success Platform and Google Cloud Interconnect.
• Received an Authority to Operate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), paving the way for U.S. government agencies to easily and securely migrate mission-critical workloads to the cloud.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with 108.6 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. A Dow 30 company with more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 176,200. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts and other information are available at Verizon's online News Center at www.verizon.com/news/. The news releases are available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/building-the-networks-of-the-future-verizon-invested-more-than-547-million-in-new-jerseys-wireline-telecom-infrastructure-in-2014-300071163.html

SOURCE Verizon