Building on the success it has enjoyed so far in the residential markets, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) announced today it's expanding its FiOS footprint to include small and medium-sized businesses.

Verizon says it will build out its network this year to cover 200,000 businesses, or 80,000 multiple tenant units (MTUs). Just as "multiple dwelling unit" (MDU) is a fancy term for apartment buildings, MTUs refer to office parks and other building complexes made up of business customers.

Verizon was already offering FiOS to standalone business such as a doctors' offices. But after pitching the idea to business owners last fall, Verizon decided to expand to MTUs. The service will be marketed and installed in much the same way it is for MDUs. (See Fiber-to-the-MDU: Verizon's Manhattan Project and FiOS in NYC: Verizon's Daunting Task.)

The announcement comes as Verizon considers expanding its residential FiOS footprint as well. Last week, chief operating officer Denny Strigl told a Deutsche Bank AG conference that Verizon could build out the network to exceed the original goal of passing 18 million homes by the end of 2010.

Strigl offered no hints on how significantly Verizon could exceed this goal, but he did suggest it could happen “without significantly changing the capital requirements."

Verizon passes close to 10 million homes with FiOS. It has more than 1.2 million FiOS TV customers and 1.8 million FiOS Internet customers.

— Raymond McConville, Reporter, Light Reading