[Discuss] Verizon phasing out copper

[dsr at randomstring.org (Dan Ritter)]

On Wed, May 01, 2013 at 04:11:44PM -0400, Tom Metro wrote:
> Dan Ritter wrote:
> >Tom Metro wrote:
> >> Today I received a letter from Verizon regarding my residence in Newton
> >> saying "Verizon is replacing telephone wires and removing obsolete
> >> equipment to ensure long-term service reliability for our customers. To
> >> avoid future service interruptions we'll need to move your telephone
> >> service to our new fiber network. This will be done at no charge to you
> >> and you will keep the same voice service at the exact same price you're
> >> paying now."
> > 
> > Interesting phrasing. ...this sounds deceptive. 
> 
> Deceptive in what way?
> 
> You think it leaves loopholes for adding charges/raising prices?
> 
> Or are you referring to their claimed motivation, "to ensure long-term
> service reliability?"

To me, it seems that they are pressuring you to allow them to
move you off a tariffed service and on to an untariffed service,
with the threat being "to avoid future service interruptions".
It's an underhanded sales tactic, not a technical fix.

> >> It seems unlikely they are still motivated by desire to escape sharing
> >> their copper infrastructure with their competitors. Are there any
> >> companies left that sell residential local phone service that haven't
> >> moved on to VoIP?
> > 
> > There are many residential CLEC companies.
> 
> Are you sure about that? I haven't actually looked in the last decade,
> but my impression matches what Richard Pieri described - that they've
> consolidated and fled the residential market. I'm sure there is a CLEC
> that will take over your business copper in Downtown Boston. I'd be
> surprised if there is still one that will take over a single residential
> line out in the suburbs.

There are CLECs who will take your voice service. I don't know
if there are many that will offer DSL.

> > Mostly they're just...letting it degrade to the point where they
> > can't provide adequate service with it.
> 
> Which is exactly what I've seen. The line in question has had several
> outages in the past few years (sometimes tied to heavy rain), picks up a
> constant AC hum, and experiences long bursts of static (that I don't
> think can be blamed on the phone; it also interferes with the caller ID
> signal when it is happening).

You have a right to complain to your PUC about this; once they
switch you to FIOS, they may solve these problems, but you lose
your right to complain.

-dsr-