Verizon Workers Union Says Company Is Refusing To Fix Broken Landlines, Steering Customers To Wifi

On the one hand, the Communications Workers (CWA) ought to know since it is their members who make such repairs (and who will lose their jobs if those services are discontinued).

On the other hand, many businesses are coercive (see about getting Google search if you don't download Chrome or how Netflix treats customers who don't want to stream video). The question is at what point, if any, pressure becomes illegal denial of contractual obligations. JL

Ryan Knutson reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Verizon has about 10.5 million residential landline voice customers. In the past few years, the company has moved 800,000 people off its copper network onto its newer, fiber-based FiOS service. Earlier this year, it agreed to sell its wireline assets in California, Texas and Florida.
Verizon VZ 0.60 % Communications Inc.’s largest union says the company is refusing to fix broken landlines.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents about 35,000 Verizon employees, says Verizon isn’t repairing copper lines in some areas in the Northeast. Instead, the union says, the carrier is steering customers to buy a wireless home phone service called Voice Link.The CWA plans to file public information requests this week with a handful of state regulators including in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to see whether it can uncover data showing the extent of the problems. Verizon is required to report information about service issues to local regulators, but the union says not all of that information is likely being disclosed to the public.
“Verizon is systematically abandoning the legacy network and as a consequence the quality of service for millions of phone customers has plummeted,” said Bob Master, CWA’s political director for the union’s northeastern region.
The dispute comes as Verizon and the union are about to enter negotiations later this month for a new contract.

Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the CWA’s allegations are aimed at pressuring the carrier in advance of those talks and he denied the union’s claims.
“It’s pure nonsense to say we’re abandoning our copper networks,” Mr. Young said.
Mr. Young said the company is investing in its copper network, and it only offers Voice Link, which delivers service over Verizon’s cellular network, as a temporary replacement while repairs are being done. About 13,000 customers have decided to keep the Voice Link service, Mr. Young said.
The CWA, meanwhile, acknowledged that if Verizon invests more in its network it will equal more jobs for union members, who are working on the copper repairs.Verizon has expressed a desire to shut off its copper line system in the future in favor of cheaper wireless and higher-speed fiber technology. In addition to being faster and in some cases cheaper to build, those technologies face fewer regulations than services delivered over copper infrastructure. AT&T Inc. T 0.60 % has also said it wants to eventually shut off its copper network.
Verizon has about 10.5 million residential landline voice customers, about half of which are on copper. In the past few years, the company has moved about 800,000 people off its copper network onto its newer, fiber-based FiOS service. Earlier this year, it agreed to sell its wireline assets in California, Texas and Florida to Frontier Communications Corp. FTR 0.10 % for $10.5 billion.
Spending on its wireline network is also declining. Last year, the company invested $5.8 billion on its wirelines, a 7.7% reduction from the year before. Mr. Young attributed the drop in spending not to reduced maintenance but to a slowdown in its FiOS build out.
The CWA’s Mr. Master said the union’s interests are aligned with those of consumers. Many customers want to keep their copper landline phones because in the event of a power outage the lines will keep running, while wireless and fiber phone systems will stop working as soon as the batteries die, according to Mr. Master.
Kenneth Schaefer is a Verizon customer in Bedminster Township, Pa., and says his copper landline stopped working about half a dozen times last year. Verizon offered him Voice Link, but Mr. Schaefer declined because he doesn’t get good cell reception in his house and doubts Voice Link will work either. He would switch to another provider but says Verizon is the only landline phone provider in his area.
Verizon got in hot water after Hurricane Sandy, when it tried to avoid fixing damaged copper lines in Fire Island, N.Y., by giving customers Voice Link. The company fixed the wireline network after residents complained Voice Link suffered from poor quality and wouldn’t work with services like credit card machines, fax machines and other technologies that need to be plugged into the phone network.