Spotlight: Cranford TV-35 – It’s there, but not always easy to find to find

By Don Smith, Manager, Cranford TV-35

How to get the most out of your Verizon FIOS statewide contract

The statewide contract from Verizon Fios provides for any municipal buildings (schools, police departments, fire departments, etc.) that the township or city owns, to be eligible for one free internet drop and one free cable TV drop.

Now, with that, the internet drop is a basic 50 megabits over 50 megabits fiber connection, and TV is a Basic TV package. We have used this in Cranford in a variety of ways. For example, at the library Wi-Fi from the new service is being used for public Wi-Fi on the first floor.

Several of our locations (such as our historical society) did not even have internet service. Some of our other buildings such as the police department and fire department are using these as backup services. The statewide contract with the details can be found on our website jagonline.org under the members section (Another Great Reason to Become a Member!)

I would encourage you to have a conversation with your mayor or administrator to discuss this great free resource.

What is needed from FIOS is the following:

• Come up with a list of locations with the full address and the location of where the service is to go.
• Place those locations on township letterhead stating that you are requesting this service under the statewide contract
• And send an email to Karyl West our government affairs representative for or FIOS in N.J.

They will then, in turn, send it to engineering and a scheduler will contact you to schedule the drops. One note is that these drops are considered residential. There is no bill, and it is free. The hardware is free too. This is a fantastic resource for your community! Trust me your mayor and council will be very pleased!