Verizon Heads for the Tribeca Film Festival

The 2007 Tribeca Film Festival is coming to Verizon Communications’ FiOS TV, Verizon Wireless’ V CAST and Internet-video service VerizonSurround ().

The festival started Wednesday and runs throughout Manhattan until May 6. Movie trailers and short films making their debut at this year's event are available via V CAST, migrating to FiOS TV and VerizonSurround shortly thereafter.

Exclusive made-for-mobile content will be updated frequently throughout the festival and available to both daily and monthly V CAST subscribers, the telco said.

In other Verizon news, as the company ramps up marketing for its FiOS TV service in the Garden State, it plans to hire 120 customer-service representatives in New Jersey at call centers in Madison and Hamilton Township.

Verizon said the full-time positions start at $474 per week, with pay increases every six months to a top wage of $1,048 per week.

The telco is currently selling its FiOS TV service in 180 communities in the state, and it said last month that it plans to hit 200 by the end of 2007.

"Each and every day, we're taking away more and more customers from cable companies,” Verizon general manager for the New Jersey region William Foshay said in a prepared statement. “These new additions to the Verizon family will help us to continue to foster choice and competition, as well as improve customer service across the board."

In December, Verizon won the first statewide video-franchise from theNew Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

The largest cable operators in New Jersey include Comcast and Cablevision Systems.

Verizon also announced that the Board of Supervisors of Virginia’s Chesterfield County approved a franchise for FiOS TV in a unanimous vote Wednesday night. The franchise covers approximately 110,000 households on top of the 22,000 the telco already served in the county.