Only about 20 percent of Mt. Airy can now receive Verizon's FiOS service for their television and Internet, according to Verizon workers. But that will soon change.

Workers have been laying cable in various areas of West Mt. Airy for several days and will continue to do so over the next few weeks, according to employee Scott Pfeiffer, who stood on Carpenter Lane as fiber-optic cable was placed along aerial wires there.

Initially, workers only lay the cable. Another team will soon come in and splice it, and only then will customers be able to call and sign up for the service, which Verizon says allows people to receive faster Internet and better television quality in their homes.

"Some areas are complete," Pfeiffer said.

Those areas account for about 20 percent of the neighborhood, but Verizon is required to build the fiber-optic network throughout the entire city by 2016, thanks to a franchise agreement it reached with City Council in 2009.

That agreement, as reported by FierceTelecom, stipulates that the network had to ensure FiOS covered all of Philadelphia within seven years. The entire project will cost about $1 billion, according to the FierceTelecom piece.

Lately, workers have been laying the cable in an area bordered by McCallum Street, West Ellet Street, Sherman Street and Carpenter Lane. They will likely soon start working in areas of Germantown but will eventually come back to Mt. Airy.

After the cable is placed, it typically takes about six weeks for customers to be able to purchase FiOS for their homes.