Sep 22, 2004 Verizon Digs In For Long Term By KEVIN WIATROWSKI kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com WESLEY CHAPEL - Verizon Communications Inc. has begun work to extend a new fiber-optic system through Pasco County. Crews are digging up yards and running conduit in Northwood, Meadow Pointe and Westbrook Estates, among other neighborhoods. Crews will take two to four weeks per neighborhood before moving on, said Verizon's Florida spokesman Bob Elek. Eventually, fiber-optic cables will be run through the buried conduit, Elek said. The work shouldn't disrupt phone service for Verizon customers using the company's copper-wire system, Elek said. The Wesley Chapel project is part of a nationwide upgrade of Verizon's systems. The fiber-optic upgrade will enable Verizon to transmit video, giving the phone company the tools to compete with cable companies for television viewers, as well as Internet and phone customers. Cable companies, through Internet phone services, are moving into territory long held by telephone companies. ``The phone company is trying to head off the competition and jump ahead of them,'' said Kenneth Buckle, an electrical engineering professor at the University of South Florida. Over the next 10 to 15 years, Verizon plans to extend fiber- optic services to 1 million customers nationwide. In Florida, upgrades are planned for Verizon customers in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties. BellSouth has begun a similar transition in other Florida counties and elsewhere in the country. In June, Verizon proposed a cable franchise contract with Tampa, which will let it compete with Time Warner's Bright House Networks. Verizon hasn't formally applied for the franchise and it's unclear when the company might do that, Elek said. Fiber-optic technology uses varying frequencies of pulsing laser light to transmit signals along flexible glass filaments. The fiber-optic networks have many times the capacity of the copper wires that have carried phone signals since the days of Alexander Graham Bell. And they carry signals with less static, Buckle said. Fiber optics also are less vulnerable to groundwater, which can cause static on buried phone and cable lines, Buckle said. However, fiber-optic systems depend on outside power to translate the electrical impulses leaving a phone into the light pulses that travel along the glass fibers. That makes them vulnerable to power failures such as those that resulted from Frances, Buckle said. Verizon has battery back-ups to run those switching stations should the regular power go out, Elek said. Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.