Verizon Trumpets Fiber Transitions in Six Wire Centers
Verizon told FCC officials that six wire-center migrations to all-fiber facilities went "smoothly, with very few customer complaints," the company said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 13-5 on Technology Transitions. Customers received the same or similar…
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services, including plain old telephone service (POTS), on comparable prices and terms over "more reliable" fiber lines than copper, Verizon said, noting the migrations weren't from legacy TDM systems to IP packet switching. Verizon said transition notifications to wholesale customers "worked well" and showed there's no need for new requirements. Migrating voice-grade digital signal 0 customers to like services over fiber is "technically possible" but "very expensive," Verizon said; the company has filed a Section 214 application to grandfather and discontinue offering those services to new customers in the six wire centers. Verizon said its notifications to retail customers were also effective, though in some cases it found sending multiple communications to customers could be confusing. Verizon noted concerns about some FCC NPRM proposals for specific types of notifications, and it urged the agency to preserve flexibility for carriers in their customer communications. Verizon said it provided customers with backup batteries that could power voice systems for up to 20 hours if power goes out, well above the NPRM's eight-hour-minimum proposal, but it opposed any mandatory backup configuration standard, given various industry configurations. Finally, Verizon touted broader benefits from the migration in the six wire centers: the reduction in power consumption by 1 million kilowatt hours (enough to power 100 homes for a year), the use of D-cell batteries that will reduce lead in landfills, and the retirement and removal of copper, reducing opportunities for theft. (Verizon said it has had 1,700 incidents of copper theft since 2009.) The six wire centers were in Ocean View, Virginia; Belle Harbor, New York; Hummelstown, Pennsylvania; Farmingdale, New Jersey; Lynnfield, Massachusetts; and Orchard Park, New York, Verizon told us by email on Friday.