As Verizon plans a fiber expansion in Boston, CEO Lowell McAdam yesterday said the company is talking to other cities about potentially building fiber networks.

Verizon stopped expanding its FiOS fiber-to-the-home Internet, TV, and phone service several years ago, making it a surprise when in April the telco announced plans to replace its copper network in Boston with fiber. In an earnings call yesterday (see transcript), McAdam said, "We are talking to other cities about similar partnerships."

Verizon's fiber expansion plans are as much about improving backhaul to its more profitable mobile network as they are about bringing wired Internet to people's homes. "We will create a single fiber-optic network platform capable of supporting wireless and wireline technologies and multiple products," McAdam said.

When asked which cities Verizon might build fiber in, McAdam said, "We have a stronger position in the Washington to Boston corridor" and "can move to market more quickly" there. But the geographical footprint isn't a "boundary," McAdam said, pointing to San Francisco, where Verizon doesn't offer fiber-to-the-home service but deployed fiber and small cells to boost its wireless coverage for the Super Bowl.

While Boston construction is supposed to begin this year, McAdam didn't provide a timeline for expansion to other cities. Any FiOS deployment outside Verizon's Northeast wireline footprint would still seem unlikely, given that Verizon just sold its fiber and copper networks in California, Florida, and Texas to Frontier. Verizon's failure to further expand its fiber network has been frequently criticized by union representatives and the mayors of major East Coast cities.

McAdam also talked about how Verizon's broadband plans will be boosted by its pending acquisition of XO Communications' fiber business and a related spectrum-lease deal. The XO deal will "provid[e] us with the deep fiber assets including 40 metro fiber rings in major cities and millimeter wave spectrum in a significant part of the country," he said. The XO spectrum will help Verizon move from 4G to 5G wireless technology and provide what McAdam is calling "wireless fiber."

"I think of 5G initially as, in effect, wireless fiber, which is wireless technology that can provide an enhanced broadband experience that could only previously be delivered with physical fiber to the customer," McAdam said. "With wireless fiber, the so-called last mile can be a virtual connection, dramatically changing our cost structure."

Though 5G standards still aren't finalized, carriers including Verizon have been conducting technical trials, and the FCC recently allocated high-frequency spectrum that could be used in future 5G networks. McAdam claimed that Verizon will be "the first carrier to deploy a 5G network in the United States" and said it's preparing for a "fixed commercial wireless fiber launch in 2017," suggesting that Verizon plans a high-speed wireless Internet service for business customers.