Went out to throw some salt down, discovered it is now pouring, at least here in the Roslindale foothills, put the salt away, then looked down the steps to see we'd gotten a Christmas delivery of the Verizon Yellow Pages, now approaching Famous Jewish Sports Legends size.

But now we can throw away the equally small knock-off version we got a couple weeks ago.

Verizon announced today it will soon make its FiOS Internet/cable/phone service available in all of Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale and Roxbury, and in parts of South Boston, including the waterfront. Read more.

The Dorchester Reporter reports that Verizon's FiOS rollout is making life hell for people living near the Enterprise Street garage where all the FiOS trucks are based.

Abutting full-time residents say the clamor at the facility is disturbing them through the evening into the early morning hours before picking up again a few hours later, often before 6 a.m.

City officials and Verizon reps hold a meeting next week on the $300 million deal that's supposed to usher Boston into the next generation of communications greatness, or at the least provide an alternative to Comcast in the roughly 70% of the city not already served by RCN. Read more.

I normally would not quote two articles from the Huffington Post, but they are Boston specific and make a ton of sense to me.

I've been trying to figure out this whole FiOS rollout in Boston. There has to be a sweet deal in there for Verizon for them to re-neg on years of telling the city, "No, no FiOS for you". Now I have the smoking gun. Read more.

Mayor Walsh today announced a deal in which Verizon will spend $300 million to bring its FiOS fiber-optic cable/Internet service to Boston.

Under the deal, the company will also attach wireless modems to city street lights and utility poles to provide better 4G and eventually 5G services to its wireless customers. Read more.

City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) says Comcast just isn't cutting it for Boston and wants to look into ways to get Verizon to bring its fiber-optic connections into town - or other companies or utilities that might do so.

RCN isn't really competition enough for Comcast and with FiOS stopping at the city line, Boston is in danger of falling on the wrong side of the digital divide for a lack of competition, O'Malley said at a City Council meeting today. Read more.

An annoyed citizen complains about the scene on Mt. Vernon Street on Beacon Hill:

Verizon phone books left on street; who uses them anyway!!!!