Verizon customers fight fiber optic push

Verizon customers in East Harlem (NYC) who have been without telephone service since early February say Verizon is trying to force them to dump their outdated traditional copper-cable landlines for the new fiber-optic lines and fancy features.

“They said, ‘You must take FiOS in order to get your phone back,’” said Sylvia Velazquez, 74, whose landline has been down for 42 days. “That’s unfair. We shouldn’t be pressured into taking it.”

Velazquez, who lives in the DeWitt Clinton Houses on Park Ave near 110th St, is one of at least 150 Verizon customers who have been complaining about dead phone lines for more than a month. Verizon denies the charges being made by the angry customers. The utility says it has been working to restore their traditional land lines, but acknowledges it would like to move them to fiber optic service. The outages appear to be the result of flooding on Park Ave between E 101st and E 103rd Streets, where the copper cables were damaged, said Verizon spokesman John Bonomo. Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez (D-East Harlem) said his office received a handful of complaints and vowed to alert the state Public Service Commission.