[Discuss] Verizon phasing out copper

[Dan Ritter]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 10:29:08PM -0400, Tom Metro wrote:
> Back when Verizon first rolled out FIOS, the recommendation was that you
> should ask them to leave your copper wiring in place, as it provided a
> few advantages: 1. Verizon was legally obligated to lease access to that
> copper to their competitors, so you could purchase local phone service
> from someone else; and 2. it allowed you to receive battery power from
> the central office to keep your phones running in a power outage.
> 
> 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. You should check with the appropriate
utility commission -- this sounds deceptive. 

> 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? If anything, installing fiber service will only lessen
> barriers to switching to a VoIP competitor.

There are many residential CLEC companies. Installing FIOS won't
have the effect you mention, because VZ is not obligated to
carry anyone else's IP traffic. There is no Net Neutrality Act.

-dsr-