In New Hampshire's Lakes Region, MetroCast Cablevision added three services last fall, and is getting ready to add Internet protocol phone service. Good thing, too, because Verizon's laying fiber to the south.

By Simon Applebaum

Every day, traveling to and from work in Belmont, N.H., Steve Murdough passes a Verizon telephone dispatching office--a none-too-subtle symbol of MetroCast Cablevision's competitive future.

Murdough, VP and general manager for MetroCast's cable system in Belmont and Laconia, works midway up a hill from one of the main highways running through Belmont. Verizon, busy constructing fiber-to-the-premises networks around the country capable of delivering video signals and improved voice and high-speed data services, has a telephone dispatching office at the bottom of the hill. "It's hard to forget as you drive by that the 800-pound gorilla is right near you," he says. "You remember that you're in a competitive world. It's a reminder every morning."

In January, Verizon announced that it is building a FiOS (fiber optic services) network in Bedford, Epping, Salem and Portsmouth, N.H. Verizon FiOS spokesperson Sharon Cohen-Hagar says there are no plans at this point to build in Laconia or Belmont.

"All four communities are to the south or west of the MetroCast footprint," says Murdough. "However, that doesn't mean Verizon won't move into our area in the future. We fully expect them to. We see this next year or two as our opportunity to reinforce the MetroCast presence and image within the communities we provide service."

With DirecTV and EchoStar already on the scene, and Verizon waiting in the wings, MetroCast is rolling out advanced products to its central New Hampshire customers as quickly as possible. Over a three-month span last fall, MetroCast launched video on demand, high-definition TV and digital video recorders. Since then, the system has increased its VOD and HD channel capacity, and relaunched its MetroCast Online high-speed Internet service, which previously had been outsourced to Maine-based provider Great Works Internet. "We already face competition daily from Verizon with their DSL service and DBS for video subscribers," says Murdough. "I don't fear the current competition from either. It only makes us better as a company and the industry as a whole."