Verizon: Sandy Victims Should Be Customers, Not Guinea Pigs

[Commentary] Ever since Hurricane Sandy destroyed huge pieces of its landline network last October, Verizon made it clear it did not want to rebuild its traditional copper network. Most folks assumed that meant replacing damaged copper with fiber.

While some consumers have grumbled about being upgraded to a more expensive service, no one doubts fiber to the home represents a step up – especially on the broadband side. But what about those communities where Verizon does not want to spend the money upgrading to FIOS? Turns out, rather than an upgrade to fiber, these communities will play guinea pig for Verizon’s new, cheaper, more limited wireless alternative called “Voice Link.” Verizon filed an application with the State of New York to replace traditional copper lines destroyed by Sandy on Fire Island with a brand new fixed wireless product called Voice Link. Whether or not Verizon is right that Voice Link is “just as good or better” than copper lines, that does not justify making a community recovering from a natural disaster into test subjects. If Verizon does not want to replace its copper system, it should offer customers that don’t want a never-before-deployed fixed wireless system an upgrade to FIOS.