While Comcast lobbyists tried their best to slow the encroachment of Verizon FiOS into their hometown of Philadelphia, the Philly city council authorized a citywide franchise back in February (you can read the agreement here (pdf) if you're into that kind of thing). As per the deal, Verizon has around seven years to wire the whole city, though these agreements (as with NYC and DC) often have loopholes that let Verizon extend deadlines or wiggle out of obligations should certain adoption numbers not be met. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, service this week went live in Chestnut Hill, South Philadelphia and North Philadelphia, near Girard College. Additional neighborhoods should come online this year, but Verizon isn't saying which ones. Verizon does keep a PA construction notice (pdf) on their website, but it's quite often outdated.

If you've paid attention, you know the modern "network neutrality" debate took off in 2005, when then AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre proudly, though dumbly, proclaimed that Google got a "free ride" on his network. According to Ed, this unfairness could only be rectified by charging companies who already pay for bandwidth money to ensure their traffic reaches AT&T consumers quickly. Such a bizarre statement obviously resulted in fear that phone companies planned to act as trolls under the metaphorical Internet bridge, grumpily extorting passers by. That created a desire by content companies and consumers for laws that would prevent this from happening.

It's been made fairly clear that as Verizon loses the ability to lock down their phones and network (forcing consumers toward their wireless handset content), the carrier is going to make up for it by squeezing the pipe and imposing some steep per-byte charges. A recently leaked Verizon memo gave insight into the company's new wireless pricing plans for Internet-enabled handsets not quite powerful enough to be considered "smartphones": $9.99 for 25MB (50 cents each additional MB) or $19.99 for 75MB (30 cents each additional MB).

If you're a smartphone customer, you can still of course pay $60 a month for 5GB worth of data, but the significant majority of customers are going to be using what Verizon's now calling "Enhanced Multimedia Phones," which come tied to this new pricing. The company this week launched the first phone that utilizes this new, not so bargain basement pricing: the 3.1-inch AMOLED touch screen Samsung Rogue: story continues..

For years the baby bells have been trying to slow (or ignore) the death of the landline by forcing DSL customers to bundle one, whether they wanted it or not. That's why it's kind of refreshing to see this Verizon ad (pdf), forwarded to us by a reader, that actually encourages customers to drop their landline. "These days, more and more people are looking for ways to cut costs and save money," begins the ad, which says that "this is a great opportunity for you to cut down on costs by making your wireless phone your only phone."

So what prompts this change of heart about the landline, which for years was an inseparable part of the carrier's bundle? Reality for one thing, and cable VoIP for another. Cable VoIP growth is explosive (Comcast's the third largest phone company), and it makes sense that the carrier advertises their strength (wireless) in the cable fight to keep defecting customers in house.

Comcast recently managed to delay Verizon's deployment of FiOS in their home town of Philadelphia by complaining to the Philly city council about issues the cable giant likely cares nothing about -- namely that Verizon's entry into the city market wouldn't lower cable TV prices, and that the telco would cherry pick the most profitable customers. In the end however, Comcast only wound up delaying approval a couple of months -- the city this week unanimously approving a Philly FioS franchise. Verizon says some people in Philly will get FiOS this year, but full citywide deployment will take seven years.