FTTP (Fiber To The Premises) systems have been envisioned for years, but high installation costs have discouraged many companies from bringing FTTP to the market. The only nationwide Internet Service Provider willing to take that risk so far has been Verizon, and it has been paying off for them.

Verizon now has over 3.3 million subscribers for its FiOS Internet service. It added 198,000 new customers in the third quarter, for a net gain of almost 800,000 new FiOS internet subscribers this year alone.

Slow uploading speeds and bandwidth caps are some of the weakest points of traditional ISPs. The "Fastest" plan offered by FiOS allows download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and uploads of up to 20 Mbps, while even the basic "Fast" service features upload speeds of up to 5 Mbps. None of the FiOS plans have any bandwidth caps.

The company's FiOS TV service is also growing. FiOS TV now has 2.7 million customers, up 191,000 in Q3.

The high bandwidth afforded by fiber optic systems allows Verizon to forego the signal compression used by most cable and satellite systems, which often leads to artifacts during the encoding and decoding portions. FiOS TV has much higher image quality, especially when viewed on large screen televisions.

Verizon has big plans to continue subscriber growth. FiOS Internet is currently available to 11.5 million premises, while FiOS TV is an option for 10.9 million premises. The company plans to makes FiOS available to more households, as well as boost adoption rates.