Verizon Is Replacing All Their Copper Phone Lines In The Area With Fios (sales, house)

[wondermint2]

I have a regular good old fashioned telephone land line with Verizon.

Today a Verizon rep was going door to door telling everyone in my neighborhood they are in the process of replacing all their analog copper lines with digital FIOS lines. I didn't know much about the pros & cons of it - so I just agreed when the rep insisted on scheduling an appointment for the installation.

I was told the installation takes about 2 hours and they need to install a box inside my house near an electrical outlet. The box contains battery backup - because without battery backup the digital phone service would go out durimg a power outage.

I did a bit of research and came up with this article (apparently not everyone is thrilled with this):


Cutting the Copper Means Less Competition for Verizon, Fewer Choices for Consumers | Hear Us Now


Do consumers have the right to refuse Verizon to switch out the copper lines for digital FIOS? I just want a basic phone line at minimal cost - and dont want to pay extra for digital phone service. The rep told me today that my phone service would still cost the same after the new digital service was installed. But for how long? Somehow I see this as ultimately benefitting Verizon and costing the consumer more. That's my hunch anyway....

[wondermint2]

Fiber Optic and VoIP Phone Systems | Copper Wire | Power Outages - Consumer Reports

[nphomeowner]

I have no idea if you are allowed to refuse the upgrade or not but have to say that we love FIOS. I really could care less about the home phone but for TV and internet it's what we want. We had FIOS up North and were thrilled that it was available to us here.

[Harbor Hopper]

I am skeptical of ANYTHING phone and cable companies do. They are some of the worst Liars and misleaders. Read all of the small print! And don't be surprised if your bill increases dramatically after 6 months!

[Sunshine Rules]

If you have a home security system, you should also check with your provider as not all security systems can be upgraded to work with fios.

I have been told by someone that works for Verizon and who is a reliable source that once the old phone lines are removed you can NOT go back to basic phone service, which is the goal of the providers.

They may be offering you the same phone rate for now, but do you really expect it to remain the same once you no longer have options?

[d4g4m]

I have had FIOS in my subdivision for over two years. Verizon sales people visit my house all the time trying to get me to switch to FIOS service. [besides the weekly junk mail] NONE of them have ever offered me or told me that FIOS phone service is replacing copper lines. And besides, you can't get only FIOS phone service. Don't believe what the sales person is telling you. They are misinformed or lying to you.
Verizon and Comcast pay FPL to have their lines on poles. For Verizon to abandon the copper lines, they would have to get permission from the PSC to do so and offer other service, meaning FIOS. It's either everybody or nobody making a switch. Until this happens, Verizon would have to provide copper line service, even if it's for only one person in a subdivision.

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by d4g4m

I have had FIOS in my subdivision for over two years. Verizon sales people visit my house all the time trying to get me to switch to FIOS service. [besides the weekly junk mail] NONE of them have ever offered me or told me that FIOS phone service is replacing copper lines. And besides, you can't get only FIOS phone service. Don't believe what the sales person is telling you. They are misinformed or lying to you.
Verizon and Comcast pay FPL to have their lines on poles. For Verizon to abandon the copper lines, they would have to get permission from the PSC to do so and offer other service, meaning FIOS. It's either everybody or nobody making a switch. Until this happens, Verizon would have to provide copper line service, even if it's for only one person in a subdivision.

Interesting. Thanks for your input. I'm doing some research and finding lots of articles on the internet about this. Here's an interesting one:

Verizon: You Totally Need This Unnecessary FiOS Upgrade

My appointment to have my copper phone line switched out is for Friday. So I'm researching all the angles. I have read that Verizon is (purposefully) tending to neglect the upkeep of the copper lines as part of their strategy. I also read somewhere that they will only come out for a service call pertaining to copper lines twice - and after that they refuse to fix the lines anymore and just automatically switch the customer over to FIOS:

http://gigaom.com/2012/01/24/want-to...l-to-complain/

So overall are the digital lines more reliable and better than copper lines? I understand that the copper lines cost Verizon more for upkeep. Also I have read that the initial battery for the digital box set-up is supplied free by Verizon - but beyond that the customer is responsible for replacing the battery. I have read that these batteries last from 2 to 10 years - and depending on where they are purchased from can cost upwards of $50. During a power outage - I read that the battery back-up only lasts for 8 hours.

I have no intention of switching to FIOS internet or TV. If the digital phone line costs the same as the copper line service and is better quality - I would have no major objection to it. Still researching........

[nphomeowner]

I recently had to "renew" our contract with Verizon and it went up $10. No real biggie but yet I know eventually they'll $10 ya to death but I do love the service and our TV and Internet have NEVER gone out in the year and a half we have been here.

[Skunk Workz]

Originally Posted by d4g4m

I have had FIOS in my subdivision for over two years. Verizon sales people visit my house all the time trying to get me to switch to FIOS service. [besides the weekly junk mail] NONE of them have ever offered me or told me that FIOS phone service is replacing copper lines. And besides, you can't get only FIOS phone service. Don't believe what the sales person is telling you. They are misinformed or lying to you.
Verizon and Comcast pay FPL to have their lines on poles. For Verizon to abandon the copper lines, they would have to get permission from the PSC to do so and offer other service, meaning FIOS. It's either everybody or nobody making a switch. Until this happens, Verizon would have to provide copper line service, even if it's for only one person in a subdivision.

They do have to keep and maintain the copper on the pole, but since FiOS is run directly to the building they can / do remove your phone from the copper system if you have phone through them.

They don't push the copper removal as much as they used to. They left the copper on my parents house a few months ago when they switched from Brighthouse (but of course disconnected them from it). When we went to FiOS about 4 or 5 years ago they removed the copper from my house (but we hadn't used it in several years anyway).

[Skunk Workz]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

So overall are the digital lines more reliable and better than copper lines? I understand that the copper lines cost Verizon more for upkeep. Also I have read that the initial battery for the digital box set-up is supplied free by Verizon - but beyond that the customer is responsible for replacing the battery. I have read that these batteries last from 2 to 10 years - and depending on where they are purchased from can cost upwards of $50. During a power outage - I read that the battery back-up only lasts for 8 hours.

I have no intention of switching to FIOS internet or TV. If the digital phone line costs the same as the copper line service and is better quality - I would have no major objection to it. Still researching........

It kind of depends upon what they are actually selling you.

If they are selling you POTS over Fiber (Plain Old Telephone Service) then you're actually still using traditional telephone services, it's just using the fiber to get to the Verizon network. Once you are connected to that network everything is identical.

If they are selling you Digital Voice you'll still be connected to that network in the same way, but DV is a VOIP product not POTS. There really shouldn't be any difference in call quality, and DV should be a little cheaper since VOIP is regulated and taxed a bit differently.

In either case the fiber connection between your house and that network is most likely going to be far superior to the old copper connection, with the single exception of needing the battery for the ONT when the power goes out.

It's worth noting that I didn't use any of the FiOS voice products, but had my own VOIP providers when we had FiOS. The quality of our VOIP service was dramatically better on FiOS than it was on cable.