Thursday, October 1, 2026
Glen Cove businesses have been fighting to have Verizon available to the downtown area for years. Last week, the Glen Cove Downtown Business Improvement District announced that Verizon is making its service open to the downtown. But some business owners are finding this not to be the case.
Upon contacting Verizon, owners, John Zazzaro co-owner of Downtown Café, and Alvin Batista from Glen Fitness Center, were told that Fios is still inaccessible.
“I went on the Fios website, and they didn’t say they had it available,” said Batista. “When I check, it doesn’t give you that option.”
Patricia Holman, executive director of the BID, has been working to find a solution to the discrepancy. “There seems to be a little bit of a disconnect between the sales office and what Verizon is technically saying,” Holman said. “The City of Glen Cove is working with us as far as having the businesses that have an interest and have tried to get Fios … get Fios.”
Although businesses have the option to use the cable and internet provider, Optimum, many have been dissatisfied with it and want to switch. “We had so many problems with optimum,” Batista said. “When there are a lot of users on, the entire area slows down.”
Businesses like Batista’s rely on internet access for their devices to improve efficiency and service to customers, so the lack of high-speed internet makes it difficult to achieve that.
Holman has reached out to downtown business owners to find out which want to switch providers. Her list, which includes Downtown Café, Glen Cove Fitness Center and Tiki Recording Studio, was sent to the city and Verizon to consider how to have the service made available on a case-by-case basis. Businesses that have not yet sent in their information can still do so by contacting the BID.
Glen Cove Councilwoman Danielle Fugazy Scagliola has been working with the BID and business owners to help move the situation forward. This week, Fugazy Scagliola and the BID worked to help Downtown Café with the process of getting their service changed.
“This is the business district,” Fugazy Scagliola said. “It seems like one of the more important parts to have options for internet access,”
After contacting Verizon again with the help of the city, Zazzaro and Shawn Scoyni, who also owns Downtown Café, were told that they needed approval from their landlord.
“Verizon needs permission from landlords to install the wires in their buildings so a renter can’t just do it. A landlord has to say yes,” Fugazy Scagliola said.
On Monday, Verizon would be sending out surveyors to make a site plan to expand the coverage to downtown. “It may sound like small steps. It’s really very big steps because we have been trying to get Fios in this area for over five years,” Hollman said.
Frustration has surrounded the lack of options for internet providers in the downtown. The fight for service resurfaced when Fios was made available in Glen Cove last year to 126 Glen Street and the apartments in Village Square. The rest of the downtown businesses were left out of the coverage zone.
“I’m very disappointed that all of Glen Cove has it and just our area doesn’t,” Zazzaro said. “They are definitely hindering us from moving forward, especially in this technology-driven world.”
In the past, petitions were signed to bring awareness to the issue, but nothing changed. “We had a petition a couple years ago and we had a petition a couple of years before that,” Holman said. “At each time when we sent in the petition Verizon had said that they have no plans to bring in Fios to the downtown area.”
And Fugazy Scagliola said there had been a push and calls to City Hall even before she became a councilwoman.
Downtown Café has approval from its landlord to move forward with the wiring. The next step was to help make sure that all downtown businesses, such as Glen Cove Fitness Center and Tiki Recording Studio, receive the service. But after hearing that Verizon was unavailable for years and not seeing any progress in the past, Zazzaro continues to be skeptical. “I won’t believe it until its true,” he said.
“I hope that more and more of our businesses follow suit and apply for it and try to order the service so it’s not a big deal for people that come behind them to get it,” Holman said.
