Verizon Backs USTelecom Bid for Fiber Voice Wholesale Relief Where Copper Retired
Verizon supported USTelecom’s forbearance request for scrapping the ILEC duty to unbundle (offer discounted wholesale access to) 64 kbps voice-grade connections where the incumbent has retired a copper loop and replaced it with fiber. The requirement has “outlived any usefulness,”…
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said a Verizon filing about a call with FCC officials, posted Friday in docket 14-192. “Customer demand for legacy wireline voice service has dropped precipitously. From 2003 to 2013, ILEC retail switched access lines declined by almost 60 percent," it said. “Similarly, demand for unbundled analog voice loops from Verizon -- which the 64 kbps on fiber channel replaces -- has declined by 65 percent.” Yet the costs of unbundling 64 kbps channels “are so high that they threaten to impede ILECs from retiring copper,” Verizon said. It cited redacted confidential costs of equipment needed to “retrofit the network of the future to accommodate yesterday’s 64 kbps technology,” which don’t include installation and provisioning costs. “And this assumes Verizon can acquire the physical equipment,” because one vendor stopped making it and others might follow suit due to the falling demand, the telco said. “The small subset of customers” for voice-grade service can obtain it from other providers or CLECs, which could continue to serve end-users through commercial platform services such as Verizon’s Wholesale Advantage or resale arrangements, it said.