This is round three in the continuing battle of Verizon’s unannounced withdrawal from supplying POTS service. I say unannounced as Verizon has no filings on docket to the FCC in this regard. But that is in fact what they are doing.

But to give you some idea of just how underhanded they wish to mask this unannounced mandate consider the following –

“Verizon offers phone service that is superior to our competitors, most of whom are not required to answer to state regulatory commissions nearly to the degree as Verizon — if they do at all,” said Verizon spokeswoman Sharon Shaffer. “More importantly, customers who don’t like the service they’re getting — or the price they’re paying — can and do change providers.”

And…

Verizon is only required to make “reasonable efforts” to meet benchmarks under “normal circumstances,” such as good weather, argued Dulaney L. O’Roark III, Verizon’s vice president and general counsel in the Southeast, in a written response to Florida’s complaints. Florida regulators, he argued, should “take into account Verizon’s massive investment in [FiOS]” fiber optic services.

Customers, he wrote, will provide “ultimate penalty by choosing one of the many alternative providers if they are dissatisfied with Verizon’s performance.”

Ok so how is Verizon lying? Time for a peek behind the veil. First understand that what Verizon is calling the ‘Communications industry’ is a three legged stool — Wireline, Cellular and Cable. Reality however is that Cellular and Cable are not efficient competitors to wireline for a cheap basic service. That’s the first lie. It is a 3 card monte that Dulaney is playing.

The second is on how American wireline service is handled in this country. A company like Verizon owns what are called LATA’s (Local Access & Transport Area). The key is own. In those LATA’s no one else may provide wireline service & repair. And even if a customer decides to go with a CLEC, the repair is still dependent on Verizon. The CLEC is not permitted to open a comm can and repair Verizon’s equipment.

So Verizon your representatives are lying when it comes to a strictly wireline environment. You are the monopoly in any LATA you own. As to reference of alternative carriers, its a thin reed Verizon. The test — Can you find any alternative service provider to provide basic phone service for $32/mo? Good luck.

Bottom line, Verizon you’re lying.

I have one other observation Verizon. If POTS is not a viable business model for you why don’t you just get out of the business? Sell it off. But not funding Network Operations for POTS for the second year in the row is not proper service to your existing customer base.

Full TBO article.

We reported that AT&T got out of the payphone business last year. Well Verizon is getting out of the Calling Card business this year.

Applicants: Verizon California Inc., Verizon North Inc., Verizon Northwest Inc., Verizon South Inc., and GTE Southwest Incorporated (d/b/a Verizon Southwest)

On May 21, 2008, Verizon California Inc., located at 112 Lakeview Canyon Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91362; Verizon North Inc., located at 8001 West Jefferson Boulevard, Fort Wayne, IN 46804; Verizon Northwest Inc., located at 1800 41st Street, Everett, WA 98201; Verizon South Inc., located at 201 N. Franklin St., One Tampa City Center, Tampa, FL 33602; and GTE Southwest Incorporated (d/b/a Verizon Southwest), located at 600 Hidden Ridge, HQE04H12, Irving, TX 75038 (collectively Verizon or Applicants), filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) requesting authority, under section 214 of the communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 214, and section 63.71 of the Commission’s rules, 47 C.F.R. § 63.71, to discontinue the provision of certain domestic telecommunications services in Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, areas of Pennsylvania within Verizon North Inc.’s operating territory, and areas of Virginia within Verizon South Inc.’s operating territory.

Anyone who is an insider knows that the areas affected are fGTE territories. Is this a big shucks in the telecom industry? Eh, not really. The cards were designed as a convenience factor in support of pay phone use. (I know, I was on the design team.) We of course know where the pay phone biz has gone in the era of cell phones.

FCC filing here.

The big V seems to be determined to be the to dog inthe US speed race. With DOCSIS 3 deployments beginning to take shape, this might be due to a competititve threat formthe cable guys. While the new FIOS speeds would be substadnard in Paris or Korea, it keeps them king of the racetrack here in the US.

Verizon now tops out at 50 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream up from 30/15 Mbps ($90 or $140 per month, depending on area, with annual contract), while its slowest speed is 10/2 Mbps up from 5/2 Mbps (under $50 per month). Existing subscribers can request the faster speeds, which are available in some cases at no extra cost; in others, the monthly fee is slightly higher.

Since the introduction in the mid-1990s of residential broadband–often used for small-office and home-office connections as well–most places in which wired digital service is available have had either one or two providers, typically the incumbent telephone company and the incumbent cable provider. (PC World)

Now, if we could just get 2 or 3 more competitors into the game, we’d have considerably faster pipes at lower prices.

Could it be there is a battle about to be waged in real high speed access? Since the cable guys won’t actively compete against AT&T, will Verizon? It sounds like V is actually testing that idea now.

Verizon is apparently preparing to overbuild AT&T U-verse territory with Verizon FiOS service. This is a first, at least that I’m aware of, where large incumbent “baby bells” enter each other’s territory with competing landline services. Apparently, the rules have changed, and dramatically so. Verizon appears to be taking advantage of statewide video franchising rules (as Texas provides), and acting as a cable overbuilder, as opposed to a traditional telecom CLEC. The development was reported in this OneTrack post. I guess the gloves are slowly coming off. (Telecompetitor)

There are times you almost want to cheer for Verizon. So far, we’ve heard nothing about bandwidth caps from them. I sincerely hope they really shake things up for AT&T and the cable guy. Maybe they’ll make a fiber run out to my Fort Worth suburb soon.

First, on the record, we don’t support phone phreaking. Its a form of theft. That having been said what is related in the Wired article just does not add up.

Why is an indictment issued in Dallas for an arrest that was issued in Amherst, NH? I am no lawyer but my understanding is indictments generally issue in the jurisdiction where the infraction occurred. Anybody know the answer?

“…that Weigman was not supposed to know where he lived, and that Weigman had arrived in the middle of a Sunday.” This is probably the oddest piece of all. I was able to find Smith’s address in less than 5 minutes using the internet and a couple of search engines. Smith’s presumption of privacy on his part is fallacious. As to Weingard’s visit, yes it was ill advised. However I hold no special significance to it occurring on a Sunday.

If I take the balance of the article on its face, Weingard is in deep trouble. The phrekng piece is the least of it. He faces trespass, stalking at a minimum. Its an interesting case to watch. Not that it affects the majority of what we report here.

The real story? A youth with misdirected ambitions. A security offiicial with a trigger finger. The FBI doing what they are required to do. Its a shame to see a talented mind go to waste.

Just off the heels of sewing up most of the 700 MHz spectrum, that big telco some of us like to refer to as Darth continues to expand his empire instead of investing his capital to better serve the territory he already controls. While the current customers of the dark helmeted one will do without 4G service for at least another 3-4 years, V is in talks to acquire Alltel. If successful, the Verizon empire will eclipse AT&T as the world’s largest.

While the details of the deal were still being worked out one person who asked not to be named said that the $27 billion valuation could be comprised of mostly debt and a smaller amount of cash. Alltel had $23.35 billion in long-term debt on its balance sheet at the end of the first quarter.

The ownership structure of Verizon Wireless — 55 percent owned by Verizon Communications Inc and 45 percent owned by Vodafone Group Plc — would not change under the deal the person said. (Reuters)

We have reported here the semi-strike by the Florida Verizon field staff in not being permitted to work on POTS services sufficiently. It looks like the FLA AG is agreeing with them to the tune of a $6.5m fine. You can repair a heck of a lot of equipment for that fee. –

TAMPA - Florida’s attorney general is calling for steep fines of Verizon Communications Inc. and an investigation into what he calls a failure to comply with state telephone repair rules and a “steady decline in Verizon’s repair performance since 2002.”

The attorney general’s office will call on state telephone regulators to issue up to a $6.5 million fine for “repeated violations of service rules during 2007,” such as Verizon taking too long to restore landline phone service to customers who lost it.

Verizon officials could not immediately be reached for comment early this afternoon. This action does not apply to Verizon Wireless, a separate corporate entity that handles cellular phones.

A Tribune investigation this spring showed a variety of repair and customer service issues at Verizon, including billing problems and long waits for telephone repair.

Verizon’s telephone outages were not by accident, says the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. Rather, “Verizon willfully violated the Florida Public Service quality rules in 262 cases during 2007.”

It is becoming very clear that the game Verizon is playing is shortchanging the PSTN services to the customers detriment in hope that they will switch to FIOS instead. What is the problem with that thought? Well illegal for one. But the Tampa service area is retiree haven. In many cases the folks only use a phone half the year. Fact, there is a ’stasis service’ that only costs $2-3/mo but essentially has the POTS line closed. When the snowbird returns in the fall they call up for reactivation without incurring a install charge.

FIOS does not have the provision. So why would a retiree sign up only to get hit with either a ETF or pay for a service they only use half of the year but pay for anyway? Yeah I thought so.

Anyway write that check VZ. Otherwise the next PUC meeting might be a little testy.

Linky.

There is a little law that is intended to protect consumers from, shall we say less than equitable practices of merchants and reporting agencies. For the second time now Verizon Wireless has been caught in a suit for failure to correct material misrepresentation on their part.

Verizon Wireless has been hit with another Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit.

The lawsuit, pending in Alabama federal court, asserts the No. 2 wireless service provider and TransUnion L.L.C. are ruining the credit of a wireless subscriber.

Plaintiff Johnny Howard said Verizon Wireless continues to try to collect more than $1,000 that he said he does not owe and to falsely report the disputed debt on his credit reports. Howard, who suspects he is the victim of identity theft, said he followed Verizon Wireless’ instructions to fill out a police report and send a copy to the carrier. A collection agency later received the police report, according to the lawsuit, but the problem was not resolved. The overdue account remained on Howard’s credit reports, prompting him to contact TransUnion L.L.C. and Equifax. Equifax eventually removed the account; TransUnion allegedly did not.

Sounds like TransUnion should be the one in the hot seat right? Well maybe. The game that is played by the system is that a consumer can challenge a entry in their report. But only the merchant can remove the offending material. Which is of course part of the purpose for the suit. An adverse ruling against VW would require them to remove the material entry.

This sort of thing might be a fluke considering it is only the second out of I am sure is thousands of accounts with this problem. That does not discount the possiblity that this is all computer scheduled and VW has no exception process for resolving valid challenges short of a loss in court.

Linky.

Ques: What is the number of free AT&T hotspots? Yep. Nationwide. This includes Starbucks and Barnes & Noble as well. Now the ‘free’ Is targeted at iPhone users. But with a little tech jockeying anyone with a WiFi enabled laptop can too. LifeHacker provides a mini-HOWTO here.

This is actually good news for the consumer. It will be interesting to see how the Wifi — EVDO — WiMax battle plays out. Verizon right now is dong a big push for EVDO using a ‘WiFi captive’ marketing campaign. Expect fur to fly in the next couple of years.

In another move towards making fewer viable competitors in the wireless space, Qwest has chosen Verizon as their new wireless partner. This leaves open the question: Will the Q eventually try to merge with Darth V to create a telco super villain?

U.S. phone company Qwest Communications International Inc and Verizon Wireless said on Monday they signed a five-year agreement for the landline provider to sell Verizon’s mobile phone services. Qwest said its residential customers will be able to choose Verizon Wireless service on its own, or as part of a “bundle” of home phone, Internet, video and wireless services.