Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is throwing down the bandwidth gauntlet, offering Internet access at 150 Mbit/s downstream and 35 Mbit/s upstream to most of its FiOS footprint of 12.5 million homes.

That speed exceeds the 107Mbit/s (downstream) tier Suddenlink Communications unveiled this year and the 105Mbit/s service Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has made public in the ongoing battle for bandwidth bragging rights.

Verizon is particularly boastful of the upstream bandwidth, which exceeds anything cable will be able to match until US MSOs start bonding upstream channels. (See Moto CMTS Set to Bond With Cable's Upstream, CableLabs Eyes a Super-Sized Upstream , and Comcast: Upstream Bonding Tests Yield 'Sustained' 75 Mbit/s .)

The service costs $194.99 a month, when purchased with a Verizon wireline voice package and a one-year contract, and is immediately available to the majority of FiOS consumer customers, with small-to-medium-sized businesses targeted at year's end.

Verizon spokesman Cliff Lee says the company is already seeing demand for higher-speed service -- beyond the 50Meg/20Meg offering that is Verizon's fastest today -- and expects to see even more for applications including telework, video conferencing, high-volume file transfer, or multiple applications.

Lee sidestepped questions about upgrades required in metro or feeder networks to support multiple 150Mbit/s services in a given area, except to say that Verizon is always in the process of upgrading its networks. The company earlier this fall showed FiOS's ability to support a two-way 10-gigabit signal.

For more on the US service provider speed chase, check out these stories:

— Carol Wilson, Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading