Verizon Engineering is likely to be the only Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) that decides not to upgrade a single strand of wire and resist fiber placement. The proof is in 30% to 60% of the old network rots. Decades of unmaintained, old copper lies struggling to offer Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers (DSLAM) and landline phones from the 1970s.
Therefore, the Verizon business plan must include selling these wrecked lines to other providers eager to serve this self-made vacuum. Verizon’s sale of the old stuff to Fairpoint in New England is a recent example of a local effort to sustain DSL copper investment for the lack of an alternative. There would be life and speed in copper if kept dry, and many long for POTS. However, that is a plain old telephone service network, and manly saw PANS, the pretty amazing new stuff, as distractions to the higher purposes of communication.
Historians may write it this way. The old technology was focused, and the com-network regularly improved to sustain the win/win principle of Universal Service. When traded in for competition between long-distance carriers, we lost it all, and for what? The 1984 breakup of Ma Bell produced a monster, the Com-Hydra.
RLC
Bottom line, the mountain of negative service problems throughout the Northeast makes one wonder if Verizon is an agent operating a cyberwar strategy. But, willing or unwilling, true or false, the national interest and security are not as threatened by the bad guy with an encrypted cell phone. Instead, it is a huge local exchange carrier making our LFAs (franchise agreements) worthless. Shouldn’t I hear a bell ringing in every attorney general’s office in the Northeast?
Verizon aggressively seeks the wealthiest clients and government agencies. Verizon refused to replace copper service for many buildings inundated by hurricane floodwaters in lower Manhattan, forcing owners and tenants to go months without service when the copper solution was a couple of weeks. Is the impossible possible here? The neat thing about lures, like the old bait and switch, is the surprise. Right in your face, they are promising a modern communications network and at the same time saying it will never happen. AT&T and CenturyLink, and so on, are similar, but only because they appear to be chasing the big VZ wireless dog.
The following is provided as a musical interlude to provoke thought. Use it to evaluate this question and decide on an action. Share it if you feel like doing so, and 2X speed is OK if rushed (the little gear bottom right).
In other words, it is not just a metaphor. A moment of reflective thought is also offered (HERE) below. The story is HERE.