New York City has filed a lawsuit against Verizon for failing to provide fiber broadband to nearly one million of its residents.
The city said that the tech company is in breach of an agreement it signed in 2008 to make its high-speed Fiber Optic Service (Fios) available to all the 3.1 million residents by 2014. The service, however, is only made available to 2.2 million households so far.
In a hope to avoid litigation, city officials have been pushing Verizon over the last two years to meet its obligations but to no avail.
"Verizon must face the consequences for breaking the trust of 8.5 million New Yorkers. It's 2017 and were done waiting. No corporation - no matter how large or powerful - can break a promise to New Yorkers and get away with it," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
In response, Verizon's spokesperson Raymond McConville said in an email to New York Times "On a day where the city is preparing for the biggest blizzard of the season, it's sad that the mayor's focus is on pursuing a frivolous lawsuit."
The spokesperson also hinted that it might not renew its city franchise in three years which could affect 4,000 people in NYC that it employs. The $1 billion planned investment in the city over the coming years might also be averted.
In a statement, the company said in defense that the NYC mayor is misinterpreting the agreement made with the previous administration under Michael Bloomberg. "The de Blasio administration is disingenuously attempting to rewrite the terms of an agreement made with its predecessor and is acting in its own political self-interests that are completely at odds with what's best for New Yorkers," it said.
According to Verizon, it has already satisfied its obligation of wiring every home with heavily promoted Internet. It argued that the agreement did not call for it to connect them to every individual house and apartment.