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Verizon Will Fix Broadband Networks, Landlines To Resolve Investigation (vice.com)
Joel Hruska reports via ExtremeTech: Verizon has reached an agreement with the Communications Workers of America and the New York State Public Service Commission to begin repairing infrastructure and restoring service across New York State. The agreement requires Verizon to extend broadband service to tens of thousands of New York State households and to begin repairing facilities it has previously neglected. As in Pennsylvania, Verizon has been neglecting its fixed wired infrastructure in its bid to first sabotage copper service, then force customers to adopt alternative solutions. It's also been mired in an ongoing lawsuit with the state of New York over its breach of a 2008 contract requiring it to provide fiber service within New York City.
This new agreement appears to settle these issues, provided it's followed. Under its terms, Verizon will extend fiber to 10,000 to 12,000 households not currently served by it in Long Island and Verizon's "Upstate Reporting Region" (these are Verizon-specific regions, not geographical areas, so "Long Island" may mean more than just the island). It will begin immediately replacing copper lines in certain specific NYC buildings with high failure rates and transitioning them to fiber optic cable, repairing operations within 50 upstate wireless centers with high failure rates, allow plant technicians to report plant failures and maintenance needs more accurately, and begin inspecting and replacing the batteries that provide critical connectivity in the event of a power outage when said batteries are deployed for specific customers (hospitals, police stations, and other emergency facilities). It will also begin removing so-called "double poles." A double pole is when an old telephone pole is stapled (metaphorically speaking) to a newer one. Some examples of a double pole from PA are shown below; Verizon has been hauled into court to force it to do its job in more than one state.
This new agreement appears to settle these issues, provided it's followed. Under its terms, Verizon will extend fiber to 10,000 to 12,000 households not currently served by it in Long Island and Verizon's "Upstate Reporting Region" (these are Verizon-specific regions, not geographical areas, so "Long Island" may mean more than just the island). It will begin immediately replacing copper lines in certain specific NYC buildings with high failure rates and transitioning them to fiber optic cable, repairing operations within 50 upstate wireless centers with high failure rates, allow plant technicians to report plant failures and maintenance needs more accurately, and begin inspecting and replacing the batteries that provide critical connectivity in the event of a power outage when said batteries are deployed for specific customers (hospitals, police stations, and other emergency facilities). It will also begin removing so-called "double poles." A double pole is when an old telephone pole is stapled (metaphorically speaking) to a newer one. Some examples of a double pole from PA are shown below; Verizon has been hauled into court to force it to do its job in more than one state.
It's the last utility that still works in an emergency.
Better yet, pull a Bell Telephone and split it up into local utilities.
The union? God forbid that their employees be paid a non-slave wage and be given civilized amounts of time off. There should be more unions for tech workers, not less.
You know it's bad when "Company begrudgingly agrees to hold up it's end of the deal" becomes a "good" headline.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
And this is why all of the people telling us the market will find a solution are utterly full of shit.
The free-market is always going to be filled with players who will do anything to get an advantage. They'll outright lie to you or manipulate the game to their advantage.
The only thing the "free market" optimizes for is greedy assholes.
The market is completely incapable of solving or fixing this issue, because a bunch of selfish companies will never arrive at a solution which works.
The reality is, we don't have competing water, sewage, and electricity. We don't have competing roads, fire hydrants, fire services, or police forces. This shit is infrastructure, and built to serve and benefit everyone.
It's about fucking time we recognized that if telcos want to compete for our business (instead of telling us what we can have as a monopoly) that the cabling which comes to our homes must be common and universal.
Then let's see what they fucking do.
These greedy cocksuckers have already collected huge amounts of money which had been required to be earmarked to expand and maintain this infrastructure. The problem is they kept it for profits and failed to invest in their network so they could move on to the next thing they could oversell and under-deliver on.
That they're trying to let it rot and go away to push us to more modern and profitable stuff is unsurprising. That they're starting to get backed into a corner by states and municipalities is a good sign.
Free market my goddamned fucking ass ... let the fuckers compete starting from the curb, and then we'll begin to see if there can be such a thing as a free market.
Of course, Ajit Pai the great puppet of the telcos will probably hand it masters relief from this, because he's such a paid shill it isn't funny.
Welcome to your oligarchy, America. If you think you have, or ever will have, a free market, you're fucking delusional.
Somehow I want to see killer clowns executing corporate executives after reading this article. That would be awesome.
and tax cuts for the fiber network they were paid to build and never did? Seriously, why the hell do we never call companies to task on this shit? You know, they couldn't get away with it if we'd stop voting people in who let them. Why do we keep doing that!?
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Oh, so what you're saying is, this is all your fault.
As in Pennsylvania, Verizon has been neglecting its fixed wired infrastructure in its bid to first sabotage copper service, then force customers to adopt alternative solutions.
I had Verizon for a home POTS (copper) landline until a few years ago - ('cause it works through all but an extended city-wide power outage). I started having problems with reliability and the tech said they wouldn't fix it and I'd have to "upgrade" to FiOS. Since I already had TV and Internet service with Cox, I just switched to them for phone too -- addition reason, there was no where to easily/nicely mount the new Verizon gear near the exiting hook-up and the TV/Internet hook-up is on the other side of the house. Also, not enough of a Verizon fan to put all my eggs in their basket.
FYI, if you missed it: You are responsible for paying for the replacement backup battery in your FiOS modem.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
that NN ready paper insulated wireline.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
THIS!! Throw them to the curb. This BS is why they do stuff like this. Tell them their incompetence is fine and a few competitors will take care of them.
Governments need to stop sucking up to these types of companies and basically encouraging their bad behavior. This was a bad deal for these citizens. They should have taken the short term costlier road for the long term benefit. Take the infrastructure, bid out an upgrade, own it, and sue Verizon to recoup some costs. Don't settle, drag them to court even if it is costlier. Set the damn precedent so it is easier in the future for you and others. Then charge the players who want to play on YOUR network and move on!!
The agreement says there will be about 7000 on Long Island itself. With a population of 7.8 million and assuming 3 per household that means Verizon will get round to at most 1 in 400 households. If that's worth celebrating what has their performance been like up till now? Also, call me cynical but there's no mention of anything to stop them from giving fiber to the richest 1 in 400 households.
It looks like they'll only do it if they get public money:
Ps. editors. Some examples of a double pole from PA are not shown below.
The only fair and true arbiter of fairness of a wage is an open market. Government-backed unions are the opposite of that — they are monopolies. Trusts, which unabashedly seek to maintain and raise the prices on what they are selling.
Instead of glamorizing them, we ought to apply anti-trust laws to them. And, when they commit crimes to further their goals, RICO-laws should apply.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
That wouldn't help, as each of them would still be a local monopoly. I'd rather see Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T broken up into about eight to twelve national broadband providers that would then compete with each other. That would require some other changes like forced line sharing or publicly owned infrastructure, so is never going to happen.
Unless by utility you mean municipally owned. Interesting idea, but also politically infeasible in the current climate.
a wired connection will always be better than a wireless one.