As a outside (but technology-inclined) observer, I think Verizon's (and any other company's) strategy involves laying down fiber in areas that will give them the most bang for their buck, soonest. If they can lay down fiber in one neighborhood which they believe will help them gain X customers, and another neighborhood will give them Y customers. They probably base this off a belief that one neighborhood has more money or perhaps even a knowledge of high customer dis-satisfaction with another company (Comcast). If X is greater than Y, I can't see why it would make more sense for Verizon to lay down the fiber in the neighborhood that would gain them "Y" amount of business.

On a lighter note, it seems that one thing unites us all in our interest to see FIOS in our own neighborhood - a hatred of Comcast and their Comcastic customer service. :-)

I am in Anne Arundel County where my only cable option is Broadstripe(aka Millenium). Anyway, they installed all the lines and even the boxes outside when the weather was warm also known as summer! Well it is now late January and they still haven't had a startup date and like always no one has any idea. It is very frustrating and frankly by the time they do get it going I may be too disappointed in them to even bother.

I'm having issues here in Baltimore County as well. As a long suffering Comcast customer, I was thrilled to hear that Verizon was coming into the county. That quickly turned to disappointment when an article said the are I live in (Halethorpe) will be 5 years in getting Verizon. All the nice high dollar areas, like Timonium, Owings Mills, etc were first on the list. I have been vigilantly watching the Verizon website for any glimmer of hope. All my friends and relatives seem to be getting Verizon and yet we still await any word of a time frame. I actually spoke from some on at Verizon trying to figure out when they will be here and the answer I received was, "you'll know before we do, when you see the contractor trucks begin to dig in your neighborhood", that's a direct quote. This is the kind of poor customer service I expect from Comcast. I'm not even close enough to a "hub" to get DSL. Yet, I'm able to have Verizon home telephone and wireless service.

From what I can see, the Verizon FiOS rollout is no different from Comcast (or the old Caltec) cable in the early 80s. It doesn't appear to be a 100% case of serving going to affluent neighborhoods first. Income matters, but so does the density of houses and the ease of access to install the lines. I would not call Parkville a "high dollar area", and it has FiOS access. I live in a 7 year old home in Perry Hall, and I cannot get FiOS. I could not even get DSL until recently.

Where is FIOS in BOWIE. Not all of BOWIE is ready for FIOS and maybe when it comes people will just end up saying no because of the long wait.