Verizon has installed VoiceLink at more than 1,000 locations in Pennsylvania in the last seven months, Gardler wrote. Instead, we're told to install VoiceLink for voice-only customers and allow the copper network to deteriorate even further.” But we are powerless to make the changes that would provide good service to customers because Verizon is not willing to spend the money, or hire the people needed, to repair the service. “We know the reasons why-the cable is bad and needs to be replaced air pressure systems are not working property and backup batteries are not replaced when they wear out. “We are seeing increasing numbers of dissatisfied customers whose service goes out when it rains or who simply have no dial tone at all,” Gardler wrote. Gardler discussed the situation at length in his testimony before the Utility Commission. VoiceLink devices connect a home's inside wiring to Verizon's cellular network. If VoiceLink is available and there is “trouble… in the Verizon network,” the technician must install the wireless service. “If the customer does qualify, follow the VoiceLink Migration installation/migration procedure and complete the migration,” the memo says.Īnother memo tells workers that they should only restore copper phone service if they can verify that the wireless VoiceLink won't work. ![]() When technicians visit the homes of voice-only customers with copper phone line problems, they must first determine whether the customer can be connected to the VoiceLink wireless service. The memo to field technicians says that in order to give customers the “best possible network performance in non-FiOS areas, Verizon will migrate as many customers experiencing trouble on their line to VoiceLink as possible.” ![]() "Our members are being told that if they actually try to repair copper plant instead of using VoiceLink, they will be subject to disciplinary action by Verizon." “Field technicians are required to have VoiceLink units on their trucks and to refuse to repair copper plant serving voice-only customers,” CWA local President James Gardler wrote in testimony presented to the state Utility Commission. The wireless home phone service, VoiceLink, is not a proper replacement for copper phone lines because it doesn’t work with security alarms, fax machines, medical devices such as pacemakers that require telephone monitoring, and other services, the union said. Further Reading Verizon would end “century of regulation” by killing wireline phone, says NY AG
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