Verizon accused of neglecting landlines to push people to us FiOS

It’s no secret that companies like AT&T and Verizon look at their aging copper landline networks as expensive dinosaurs of a pre-Internet age. But one advocacy group alleges that Verizon has allowed its copper lines to fall into disrepair in the hopes of pushing landline customers to Internet-based phone service.

California-based Utility Reform Network (TURN) has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, alleging that Verizon is refusing to repair legacy copper-wire landline telephones. The public advocacy group says that Verizon is “neglecting the repair and maintenance of its copper network” and aims to forcibly migrate clients to IP-based services and fiber-optic connections. A public hearing was held last week regarding the matter. A Verizon customer service employee, working in a copper-wire repair center claims to “have been trying to help a customer who has been out of service since January.”