Verizon announced that it has recently received franchise agreements for its FiOS video service in Northborough, Mass., and Everett, Wash.

The Board of Selectmen in Northborough granted a cable franchise to Verizon on Monday. Verizon said the board's vote makes 78 the total number of Massachusetts communities where Verizon's FiOS TV is, or will soon be, available.

Everett city council members unanimously approved a franchise agreement for Verizon yesterday . Everett is the second community in Washington State to grant a video franchise to Verizon, following a similar vote last week in Lynnwood. The company plans to begin offering FiOS TV there later this summer.

The council's decision gives Verizon the authority to offer FiOS TV to the 39,000 households in Everett. Some Verizon customers in Everett are already using the FiOS Internet service.

Verizon also announced that customers and businesses in the Michigan towns of Parma and Rives Junction now have its Internet service through a DSL installation.

More Broadband Direct:

• Comcast gears up for converged services on TV, Internet, phones

• Buckeye signs up for iTV beta test with CMC's HITS AxIS

• Broadstripe Prez, CEO Shreffler to leave MSO

• UK ISPs knuckle under to Brit record companies

• Verizon inks more franchise agreements for FiOS service

• TWC names Welch to group VP, legislative affairs

• SCTE Foundation announces 6 grant winners in Q2

• Exfo launches more test modules for Ethernet validation, FC testing

• Broadband Briefs for 7/24/08