Currently, Verizon offers only telephone and broadband Internet service in Rhode Island, but Cox offers all three services. “The only way we can compete is to offer this third piece of the puzzle,” McGee said. “We need to have that triple play, where we can offer phone service, high-speed Internet and cable TV."

Between 2001 and 2006, Verizon lost a total of 45.3 percent of its telephone lines in Rhode Island, more than in any other New England state, according to data Verizon submitted to the FCC.

The company, which has invested $750 million in its fiber network in Rhode Island in the past 10 years, has been working for more than two years to break into the TV market in Rhode Island and across the nation.