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Verizon Workers Can Now Be Fired If They Fix Copper Phone Lines (arstechnica.com)
Verizon has told its field technicians in Pennsylvania that they can be fired if they try to fix broken copper phone lines. Instead, employees must try to replace copper lines with a device that connects to Verizon Wireless's cell phone network, ArsTechnica reports. From the article:This directive came in a memo from Verizon to workers on September 20. "Failure to follow this directive may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal," the memo said. It isn't clear whether this policy has been applied to Verizon workers outside of Pennsylvania. The memo and other documents were made public by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, which asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to put a stop to the forced copper-to-wireless conversions. The wireless home phone service, VoiceLink, is not a proper replacement for copper phone lines because it doesn't work with security alarms, fax machines, medical devices such as pacemakers that require telephone monitoring, and other services, the union said.
Apparently it's not enough to getfederal subsidies for copper telecom.
No, they want to destroy the infrastructure they're getting federal subsidies to maintain.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
Technicians can fix the copper line “if the customer does not qualify” for wireless service. In those cases, the tech must document the reason the customer didn’t qualify for VoiceLink.
“It is a requirement that migration to VoiceLink be your first option when the customer qualifies and the trouble is in Verizon's network,” the memo says.
So it looks like if a tech is called to a site where all they have is voice over copper, and they're having issues with said VOC, then the techs are to simply test to see if the wireless service will work there, and if so, switch them to it. If not, then fix the copper line.
I'm not defending Verizon, but the headline here is misleading.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
If it's not powered by the central office, then it's not telephone service, and the frauds at Verizon should be completely liable for all problems incurred by their false advertising.
We must all freak out even though the article itself says there is an exception form to fill out if the copper line is required. For 99% of people who are out of a FIOS area this is a good thing as it gets their foot in the door for providing some form of wireless internet that will far exceed what they can offer via DSL. The
The vast majority of customers could care less about copper or wireless or whether they are getting money to maintain copper. Presumably the wireless system has a battery ups like cable to maintain service during short outages. Does everyone here have parents that work in a copper mine or something?
This is just part of the pain of moving from analog to digital.
No, it's not. Copper lines carry digital data just fine. This is cheaping out on last-mile.
Most modern landline phones are powered with wall current.
In the US, at least, POTS lines power the phone using DC current over the POTS (copper) line -- for normal phone usage -- no house power is needed for ring, dial tone and calls in/out. VoIP modems provide this power to the phones from either house current or their battery backup. Extra features the phone may have, like voice mail, are usually powered by house current and unavailable during a power outage.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
A vote for Hillary, well any Democrats on the ballot, is rewarding the tactics of the DNC. They don't care if people bitch and moan. They only care if people vote Democrat. Bitching and moaning and then voting Dem makes all your complaints irrelevant. Things will not change, a party will not reform, until they lose the votes of otherwise loyal voters. Your only power is your vote, not a letter nor an email nor a text nor a post nor a tweet.
This again? Stein supports vaccination, but has a problem with the way business is conducted by the FDA.
http://www.snopes.com/is-green...
For the nuke comments, sadly, I have to give you that one.
https://twitter.com/DrJillStei...
Think I'm doing a write-in for my cat this term.
When you live in a sick society, just about everything you do is wrong.