• The Washington Post , Thursday, December 28, 2006 12:20 PM

Verizon, which is spending $18 billion to turn its existing copper lines into a much faster fiber-optic network named Fios, has opened a store in a mall in Fairfax, Va., that demonstrates the features customers can expect from the super-high-capacity network.

Shoppers at Verizon Experience lounge in front of high-def televisions, surf the Web and fiddle with the latest cell phones. Nearly 20 sales people roam the floor and help customers at different stations.

Verizon opened the store--its second in the nation--in Fair Oaks Mall on Dec. 15 to market its television, phone and Internet service as well as its wireless plans.

"Verizon's taking dead aim at the cable operators that have spent tens of billions of dollars to get their networks in place," says Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst at Parks Associates, a Dallas market- research firm. Telephone companies have an advantage over cable companies because they also offer wireless services, he adds.

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