Verizon Forcing and Tricking Customers Off Copper
This just in: Verizon is still as evil as any taxpayer-subsidized monopoly can be. Which is to say, very.That endlessly reliable copper telephone network that stretches across the country, carries its own power, and serves as a literal lifeline for millions of people even in the event of catastrophes? The one that's incredibly subsidized right down to the "Universal Service Fund" intended to protect poor and rural citizens? Yeah, that one. Ars Technica's got a nice write-up of how Verizon is doing everything it can, legally and illegally, to let the network fall into disrepair and to literally trick customers into switching into its "now! with a whole 8 hour battery life!" replacement over fiber.
It doesn't help that POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) over fiber is very different from the FiOS Internet+TV over fiber offering, and that Verizon has done everything possible to hide that distinction in order to get people paying for their FiOS Internet and TV service (which, in turn have moved quickly from "hey, cheaper than cable and sweet fast Internet" to "WTF who pays that kind of money for this stuff" in just a few years as they put the hook in). They can switch your regular telephone line from copper to fiber without any change in service at all. (Except for the whole "now you have 8 hours to live" thing.)
That, and getting rid of copper maintenance saves them a lot of cash internally. Oh yeah, it also means that once your copper is ripped out you can NEVER get DSL from Verizon or ANYONE else -- giving VZ and your cableco a de facto duopoly over you ever getting wired Internet access. Ever compared the cost Verizon's own $20/month DSL to its FiOS Internet-only service that STARTS at $75/month ?
This is all quite old news to anyone paying attention, but Ars lays out the sad story pretty well.
As a tiny aside I found it amusing that Verizon doesn't own the fios.com domain.
Before Fios came out, there was talk about further separating their successful wireless business from their failing (yup) landline business. Fios being part of landline, many in the company have looked to it as their Savior. Not surprising that they want people to switch. Fios is profitable, copper is not. If they can get enough people to switch, they can try to make the case that there isn't enough customer demand for the aging technology, and maybe, MAYBE they won't have to keep supporting it. Dumping that piece of the business would probably even give them the leverage over the unions they'd need to scale back the northern workforce (In the south, it's all contractors) It's a big deal for them.
Without copper they would likely lose their government subsidies, so is there a reason to INSIST that they support a part of their business that they no longer want to support? Yes, there are some people that want to keep copper wires because they can be more reliable.. but I've known people in my life that wanted to keep their outhouses because the new-fangled replacements weren't appealing to them, weren't as simple, relied on running water (which like HSI might not be available in a disaster/storm/lapse in payments) and yet most would agree that the advances outweigh the potential pitfalls. I haven't heard anyone in the last few years advocating outhouses.
Will cellular/digital phones vs copper be all that different in 10-20 years?