Beginning next week, more consumers will be able to sign up for Verizon's speedy 50Mbps FiOS service. The faster speeds are already available in six states, where competition from cable is particularly fierce, but they'll now be available throughout Verizon's entire FiOS Internet service footprint in 16 states.
As part of the upgrade, all FiOS customers will now have access to download speeds of 50Mbps and uploads of 20Mbps for about $140 a month. It certainly isn't cheap, but heavy users will appreciate the ability to download at speeds up to 6.25MB/s. To put this into perspective, Verizon says customers should be able to download a 5GB HD movie in 13.3 minutes, a 60-minute Web video in 8 seconds, and a 5MB music file in less than eight-tenths of a second.
Hopefully they won't be limiting what can be done with such a connection, as others have done recently. Slower plans are being upgraded as well, with Verizon's mid tier offering going from 15Mbps / 2Mbps to 20Mbps / 5Mbps and their lower end option from 5Mbps / 2Mbps to 10Mbps / 2Mbps.